Artists respond to Pittsburgh’s tragedy in creative ways
As Pittsburgh mourns and grieves, artists create. And as we find solace in art, so, too, do they.
Poets, musicians, artists, theater makers from near and far have been inspired and consoled by their work and the work of others, along with the rest of a community reeling from the shooting deaths of 11 congregants at Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill.
Vanessa German, a multimedia and performance artist, provides a place of healing through art at Love Front Porch in Homewood. Her answer to how art responds to grief was to send examples of her work and a sentence in her own lyrical writing:
“Here you will find images of works created, enacted, & performed that activate the power of social healing through the visual ritual of sight, the power of vulnerability & visible grief that invites & welcomes free & open expressions of sorrow, grief, & rage. This is what a large body of my work is purposed inside of; the truth that the personal is political & that the technology of the soul can be balanced with this truth. … I believe in the power of art & I believe in the power of love & I do not have to distinguish between the two of these.”
For a group of University of Pittsburgh students, graduates and their friends, music was the medium to express their grief and offer hope for strength, healing and unity. Inspired by the “Stronger Than Hate” motto that has swept social media and our community, Harry Lebovitz, Konstantine Deyev and Cody Maimone wrote a song with that as a title. They recorded the song, with Mr. Leibovitz as the lead vocalist and his co-writers as accompanists, and began the process of turning it into a professional video with fellow members of The 800 Club, a music and lifestyle collective founded by Pitt alumnus Mr. Deyev and current students Esam Hossain and Andrew Posniack. They are selling T-shirts at the800clubofficial.com, with proceeds going to Tree of Life.
“One of our closest friends is a member at that synagogue and was going to worship, and he woke up late,” Mr. Hossain said. “He was on his way when he was told to turnaround. That’s just crazy.” Now, “We want to spread a positive message about everything Pittsburgh.”
On Wednesday afternoon, the song was played over the loudspeaker at Fox Chapel Area High School, Mr. Lebovitz’s alma mater, and students were invited to join the group on the North Shore near
Heinz Field as they filmed a new video despite the Halloween rain.
Lyrics for the song include: “Hatred can’t weaken a city of steel / I know that you’re broken, but we can rebuild / We only need time, a moment to heal.”
From the streets of Pittsburgh to our TV screens, artists displayed support and, in the case of the hit NBC show “This Is Us,” a call to action. Series creator Dan Fogelman, who grew up in Bethel Park, made the central characters of the show a Steelers-loving family from Pittsburgh. At the end of Tuesday’s episode, a white-on-black message read: “Our hearts are broken. We stand with our television hometown of Pittsburgh. To learn more about ending gun violence, visit www.everytown.org.”
Theater companies in our region, several faced with immediate decisions Saturday about whether to go on with the show, are pausing for moments of silence before performances this week and reflecting on the will to persevere in times of tragedy.
“At the weekend performances of ‘Pipeline,’ we started with a minute of silence to acknowledge the victims,” said Marc Masterson, artistic director of City Theatre on the South Side. “Then in the curtain speech, we reaffirmed our values of community, compassion and empathy. The post-performance discussion that we are holding after every show was particularly informed by the tragedy on Saturday night, and people wanted to talk about the day’s events in light of the story that they had just witnessed. Our work continues.”
Karla Boos, head of Quantum Theater and curator of the ongong Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts — representing companies from all over the world — was involved with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s decision to go on with the show Saturday night. The local Bricolage Productions and Hanut31 of Tel Aviv performed as scheduled after both companies appeared onstage to discuss the day’s events, followed by a moment of silence and a performance of a piece called “Silence” by Cello Fury.
Part of the decision was a planned post-show gathering that included companies from South Africa and Haiti. “It was a warm, civilized party until sometime after midnight. And then the singing started — the South Africans gathering us in a circle and teaching us songs that call on the ancestors, the Israelis singing in Hebrew, on and on, louder and louder.”
She said there were no complaints from neighbors at Bricolage’s theater at 937 Liberty Ave., Downtown, as “we raised their roof at about 1:30 a.m. It helped.”
Music also helps Ms. Boos, a former Squirrel Hill resident. “I’m listening to a lot of Violeta Parra these days and it seems incredibly appropriate,” she said of the Chilean songwriter. “Her most famous song, ‘Thank You for Life,’ is just gorgeous.”
Tammy Ryan is a Squirrel HIll resident, playwright and educator. Words are her medium, “and in times of grief — especially enormous soul crushing grief like this — my words fail me,” she said.
For her, the time to create is not now, she said, adding, “I find solace in other people’s words, like poet Mary Oliver — just pick one of her magnificent poems.”
She ended a long email with a quote by Vietnamese Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh, “that inspired the title for the current play, a friend sent to me when my sister died in 2015”:
“This body is not me; I am not caught in this body, I am life without boundaries, I have never been born and I have never died. Over there the wide ocean and the sky with many galaxies. All manifests from the basis of consciousness. Since beginningless time I have always been free. Birth and death are only a door through which we go in and out. Birth and death are only a game of hide-and-seek. So smile to me and take my hand and wave good-bye. Tomorrow we shall meet again or even before. We shall always be meeting again at the true source, Always meeting again on the myriad paths of life.”
Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company is between shows, following up “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” with a festival of plays by local writer Ray Werner.
Mark Clayton Southers, the company’s founder and artistic director, said his company was “saddened and troubled” for the horror visited on the Jewish community that “has been one of our biggest supporters since our inception some 15 seasons ago.”
“Theater has always been a vehicle to bring people of different cultures and beliefs together. We at the Pittsburgh Playwrights pride ourselves in being one of the most diverse theater companies in our city and we promise to continue to lift the voices of Playwrights from our diverse neighborhoods in an effort to bring peace and understanding to the masses.”
Marya Sea Kaminski, the new artistic director of Pittsburgh Public Theater, was “grappling with what to say or think in this time of incredible grief and deep fear,” she said.
“Yes, I am drawn into the theater, into our work, into the tacit agreement most everyone in theater rests in — we agree to be safe and brave with one another, to care for one another’s stories, to see the humanity in our character and our audiences, and to bring our own humanity to bear.”
When she and managing director Louis Castelli welcomed audiences to the weekend’s performances of “Pride and Prejudice,” we thanked them for coming together during this difficult time in our city and our world. We said that in a time when there are so many reasons to feel scared or alone, we believe that it is an act of service, courage and even love to come together to share time and space, like we do at the Public and all over this city.”
Joanne Scheier, originally from Clairton, has a daughter who lives in Squirrel Hill. She was inspired to write a poem about Pittsburgh, city of tolerance and resilience. Here is an excerpt from “Who Are We, Pittsburgh.”
Who are we then, Pittsburgh, hate strikes?
We are the bells of Polish Hill, The golden ramparts of the South Side, The menorah bright before the Synagogue, The call for prayer by the young Imam, The white filigree of the Hindu temple; The nativity scene nestled in the city square; We are everyone who worships and those who do not ...
Wechoose tolerance, We choose acceptance, We choose love With every word, Every gesture. Every time.
Here we are home to wave upon wave of the bleeding immigrant ... and the fleeing slave. Their dreams are our dreams, their hope is our hope; We have their courage woven in our hearts; Their joy, their sorrows, ours.