All posts tagged City of Asylum Pittsburgh

Terrance Hayes Wins National Book Award

The poet Terrance Hayes is “bringing the National Book Award home to Pittsburgh,” as he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Hayes’ Lighthead beat out the works of four other poets, including established writers such as C.D. Wright. Watch Hayes read at the 2010 Jazz Poetry Concert and read Sampsonia Way’s interview with the author.

Hinemoana Baker: “Something I’ll Carry With Me For A Long Time”

Writer, musician and radio producer Hinemoana Baker reflects on her experience of the 2010 Jazz Poetry Concert.

Picking a Lock to the Mind-Jail in the City of Asylum

Poet Yusef Komunyakaa on the 2010 Jazz Poetry Concert.

Serenade for Oil City

Here we present an excerpt of Pennsylvanian author Philip Terman’s long poem “Serenade for Oil City, Pennsylvania,” in which he tells the story of the small Pennsylvania town once at the center of the oil industry.

Ships in the Mist: Scenes from a Burmese Childhood

This month we have dedicated our coverage to Burma and it’s repressive and secretive regime. Because publishing is so tightly controlled there and the government regulates communication, it is difficult to have access to stories of daily life in Burma, a perspective offered here by City of Asylum writer-in-residence Khet Mar. Khet Mar fled Burma in 2006 after her relief work with Cyclone Nargis survivors attracted the attention of the junta.

Burmese Writer-In-Exile Speaks in Pittsburgh

Khet Mar does not look like a revolutionary. She is demure, soft-spoken, unassuming. She appears to be as delicate and fragile as a butterfly, but that appearance belies great strength and resolve. She was only 22 years old in 1991 when sentenced to ten years in a Burma prison. Her crime: speaking out publicly for human rights.

Immigration and Oppression: Readings with Amnesty International and American Shorts

City of Asylum/Pittsburgh writer-in-residence Khet Mar will be reading on Tuesday at the Shadow Lounge at an event sponsored by COA/P, Pittsburgh Human Rights Network, and Amnesty International.

She will speak on the deplorable state of human rights in Burma and the repression of journalists. After the reading Khet Mar will take questions from the audience and there will be a film screening and an opportunity to participate in an Amnesty International letter writing campaign.