There’s lots to talk about at the Pittsburgh Humanities Festival
By Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Which monuments need to be banished? What are the merits of phone sex? Did a book predict a President Donald Trump back in 2011?
Those are among the topics of the third annual Pittsburgh Humanities Festival, which will explore the theme of “Continuum: Past, Present, Future” with a series of Core Conversations.
Taking part in conversations will be documentary filmmaker Rick Sebak, XMen illustrator Ed Piskor, Braddock Mayor John Fetterman and his wife, Gisele, Lou Reed biographer Anthony DeCurtis, autism advocate Steve Silberman and much more.
The festival, presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University, takes place at the Trust Arts Education Center, 805 Liberty Ave., Downtown. Tickets for Core Conversations can be purchased for $5 per conversation. Ticket prices for featured events vary. For pricing and to purchase tickets, visit TrustArts.org/SmartTalk, the Box Office at Theater Square, or call 412-456-6666.
Here is the schedule:
Noon-1 p.m.: “Rick Sebak: That’s Pittsburgh!” (Trust Arts Education Center, Peirce Studio)
1:30-2:30 p.m.: “X-Men Grand Design: Ed Piskor” (Peirce Studio)
“Should They Stay or Should They Go?: The Monuments Controversy”: A conversation between historians Nina Silber and David Blight, moderated by Germaine Williams (fourth floor)
3-4 p.m.: “Lou Reed: A Life”: With author/critic Anthony DeCurtis and David Shumway of CMU (Peirce Studio)
“A Requiem for Rice: A Tribute to Those Enslaved, Exploited, and Brutalized”: Vanessa German will interview CMU’s Edda Fields-Black (fourth floor)
4:30-5:30 p.m.: “The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist”: With Marcus Rediker, author of a new biography of Mr. Lay (Peirce Studio)
Public Open Call: “Phone Sex, Anti Sex Work Feminism, and Masculine Socialization”: Open forum with Jessie Sage, a Pittsburgh-based alternative model, phone entertainer and feminist activist (fourth floor)
Noon-1 p.m.: “Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity,” with author Steve Silberman (Peirce Studio)
1:30-2:30 p.m.: “Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus,” with