We Can Be Podcast - The Heinz Endowments

“I got into art-making because I want show the different ways that people show up in the world, and to represent voices that are often not heard,” says janera solomon, executive director of the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. That aim has never been needed more than now, as her neighborhood grapples with rapid change and the risk of cultural erasure.   In the past decade, Pittsburgh’s historic East Liberty community has seen big-name tech companies set up shop in former warehouses, heated controversies ignited about affordable housing, and black-owned businesses priced out of their long-time locations. Steady through it all has been janera and the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, named for native sons/entertainment legends Gene Kelly and Billy Strayhorn.   In addition to her passion for bringing world-class art to her city and giving agency to often underrepresented voices, janera champions a belief in the power of art to address the big issues of our day.    “If we’re going to make the case that our art – and our art

Groundwater poisoned from fracking, toxic coal sludge, and industrial pollution can sicken those who live near the source, and ruin land for generations to come. Often those most acutely affected are also those with the least resources to fight for environmental justice.   So, Emily Collins did something about it, founding Fair Shake, the nation’s first nonprofit law firm devoted to providing environmental legal services regardless of the client’s ability to pay.   Hear about Emily's journey from the woods of her family’s Ohio homestead to the courtroom where she and the Fair Shake team work with individuals, community groups, nonprofit organizations and farmers to give them a fighting chance in their environmental battles.   And those battles have increasingly higher stakes, too. “I used to work on cases about impacts to one waterway,” Emily says. “Now, I find myself writing sentences like ‘the project will disturb 246 acres, resulting in impacts to 14 wetlands, one pond and 67 streams.’”   Emily sha

Sybrina Fulton is the mother of slain teen Trayvon Martin, and Jasiri X is the co-founder of anti-violence artist collective 1Hood Media, but both are so much more than those descriptors suggest.   “He was my youngest boy,” says Sybrina of her son Trayvon, the unarmed 17-year-old who was followed and shot to death in 2012 by a neighborhood watch coordinator for “looking suspicious” in a Sanford, Fla., gated community. “He loved aviation, Skittles, babies and his family. He was a regular kid.”   Recording artist-activist Jasiri X, who also is a father, remembers the moment he first heard about Trayvon’s death. “I was used to police killing us, but at that moment it felt like anyone could kill us and get away with it,” he says. “It felt like open season on black men and boys.”   In this episode of “We Can Be,” Sybrina shares her moving journey from grieving mother to author (“Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin”) and activist (The Trayvon Martin Foundation).   Her story has helped to insp

With over 2.5 million weekly “Very Smart Brothas” readers, a GQ column and new Harper Collins book “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker,” Damon Young is artfully illuminating life as a black man in 21st century America.   “So many of the narratives about being black in America are ensconced in deep trauma,” says Damon. “And yes, we do deal with racism, oppression and structural inequality, but I hope my writing shares that there is also beauty, love, passion, and humanity in that experience, too.”   Damon shares his take on the role white privilege played in the killing of 17 year-old unarmed black teenager Antwon Rose II by a white former East Pittsburgh police officer, the conversation about homophobia he hopes is sparked by a chapter in his new book, and how systemic inequality has led him to experience the “hyper-cognizance” of his blackness.   Damon talks with host Grant Oliphant about why Hannah Gadsby’s Netflix comedy special “Nanette” is definitely in his “love” column, and whether having an

“THERE ARE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE," in cut-out white letters on the black background of a steel billboard, stood high above Pittsburgh’s rapidly changing East Liberty neighborhood last spring – and brought national acclaim to interdisciplinary artist and cultural producer Alisha Wormsley.   But that science fiction-inspired contribution to The Last Billboard art project – and the controversy its removal sparked – is but one brush stroke in an artistic career that has spanned nearly two decades and numerous continents.   “I don’t consider myself an activist,” Alisha says, “but my art is active.” It is indeed active – and vibrant – weaving family history, an archeologist’s sensibility, and a love of sci-fi into photographic, film, mural, performance and multi-dimensional works of art.   Learn how a Zora Neale Hurston book about the religious experience of post-emancipation African Americans, her brother’s Marvel comic obsession, and “The Walking Dead” AMC television show have all influenced the smart,

In this second episode of a two-part series, Jewish community leaders share their distinct and moving perspectives of what happened on Oct. 27, 2018, when a lone gunman opened fire on worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Eleven people were killed in what would become the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in our nation’s history.   Host Grant Oliphant speaks with the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh’s executive director, Brian Schreiber, and the Center for Loving Kindness and Civic Engagement’s Rabbi Ron Symons.   With the world’s focus on their community, Brian and Rabbi Ron were among those that did all they could to honor traditions and the lives lost in the hours after the tragedy. “We didn’t think about courage,” said Brian. “We just thought about doing the right thing.”   “A world where we don’t have to deal with this type of hatred is a world that is yet to be,” said Rabbi Ron. “But we have to do our best to try to get to tha

The early morning of Oct. 27, 2018, began with promise, ethereally foggy with sunlight shining through the occasional crack in the haze to highlight the fall foliage.   Then, at 9:50 a.m., a lone gunman opened fire on worshipers at the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, killing 11 people in what would become the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in our nation’s history.   In this two-part episode, we will hear three distinct and moving perspectives of what happened that day and in the weeks that followed as the Jewish community, city and country persevered through grief, reckoned with reality, and found that random acts of beauty and unity are the new normal.   In part one, host Grant Oliphant speaks with Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh CEO Jeff Finkelstein.   The Jewish Federation has assisted Jewish people affected by traumatic events for more than 100 years, and Jeff shares heart-rending details of what he – and fellow Jewish leaders – did in the