From the organizers: “Writers Ava C. Cipri, Selene dePackh, Alana Gibbs, Cristina Hartmann, Emilio Rodriguez, and Heather Tomko will read from the e-/audiobook anthology, Pittsburgh Live/Ability: Encounters in Poetry and Prose. The collection includes interviews and collaborations between 11 Pittsburgh authors—more than half of whom identify as disabled—and a diverse group of 11 Pittsburghers with disabilities. The book, published in September of 2022 by City of Asylum, is free and available at the cultural organization’s website.”
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Six Pittsburgh-area writers with disabilities will share their work in a free reading at the University Pittsburgh on Friday, March 31, from 2 to 3:30 p.m., in room 548 of the William Pitt Union at the corner of Fifth and Bigelow Avenues. This event is funded by the University of Pittsburgh Year of Emotional Well Being, the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Office of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies / College of General Studies, and Institute for Writing Excellence, and the Pitt Department of English. Access support is provided by Pitt’s office of Disability Resources and Services.
Light refreshments will follow the reading.
This event will also be livestreamed at https://pitt.zoom.us/j/97837020283, with captioning provided.
Writers Ava C. Cipri, Selene dePackh, Alana Gibbs, Cristina Hartmann, Emilio Rodriguez, and Heather Tomko will read from the e-/audiobook anthology, Pittsburgh Live/Ability: Encounters in Poetry and Prose. The collection includes interviews and collaborations between 11 Pittsburgh authors—more than half of whom identify as disabled—and a diverse group of 11 Pittsburghers with disabilities. The book, published in September of 2022 by City of Asylum, is free and available at the cultural organization’s website. Major supporters of the project include the The Heinz Endowments, the FISA Foundation, the Queequeg Foundation, and the Staunton Farm Foundation. Ellen McGrath Smith is the artistic director and editor of Pittsburgh Live/Ability: Encounters in Poetry and Prose.
In the collection’s Afterword, award-winning poet Sheila Black observes that Pittsburgh Live/Ability is “a nuanced and complex articulation of some of the values and practices of what I’d like to call disability culture. Most importantly, it suggests how the values and ideas that have informed disability experience can be an important force in revitalizing and rebuilding our sense of community.”
The event follows the final session of the Creating a Culture of Access series, sponsored by the Dietrich School’s Institute for Writing Excellence. The session, a workshop with Amy Jo Burns and Jessie Male on “Writing to Navigate and Process Trauma” based on the work of memoirist and craft scholar Louise DeSalvo, takes place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the Pitt campus; the workshop on the day of the reading is open to the public, with pre-registration required. At the 2 p.m. reading, live captions and access copies of works to be read will be available. Masking is mandatory at the reading; they will be available at the entrance. For other access needs, please contact us here.
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