According to baritone saxophonist Alex Harding, if you want to know jazz, you must first know the blues. “The blues is what this music is about. Period,” he said during rehearsal for City of Asylum/Pittsburgh’s 2010 Jazz Poetry festival. In this video, Harding explains how the sound of the sax emanates from the same place as the human voice and reflects on the rich jazz legacy of rust belt cities like Pittsburgh and Detroit.
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Pittsburgh-based poet Terrance Hayes has been nominated for a National Book Award for his collection Lighthead. This video features selections of Hayes’ poetry at the 2010 Jazz Poetry Concert.
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Organizing the exhibition “Queloides: Racism and Race in Cuban Contemporary Art” has been a mix of obstacles, audacity, and adventure. The Mattress Factory Museum exhibit was first shown earlier this year in Havana and the curator Alejandro de la Fuente was unable to attend. He was banned from Cuba and later expelled from the country when he tried to visit family in Havana.
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When the Nobel Foundation announced that Chinese intellectual and activist Liu Xiaobo won the Peace Prize, we celebrated at Sampsonia Way. The prize committee lauded Liu Xiaobo “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.” We hoped this would help the jailed writer gain his freedom. However, the announcement ignited a furious response from China.
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Pittsburgh-based poet Terrance Hayes has been nominated for a National Book Award for his collection Lighthead. He is one of five finalists for poetry along with C.D. Wright, Kathleen Graber, James Richardson, and Monica Youn.
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Jade Amoli-Jackson fled Uganda nine years ago. Staunchly opposed to the guerrilla warfare that was claiming the lives of her fellow country-folk, Jade offers these poems about her experiences in Uganda.
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Professor Heather Pinson reflects on her experiences of the 2010 Jazz Poetry Concert.
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Writer, musician and radio producer Hinemoana Baker reflects on her experience of the 2010 Jazz Poetry Concert.
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Poet Yusef Komunyakaa on the 2010 Jazz Poetry Concert.
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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.
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Sampsonia Way's companion guide to City of Asylum’s Exiled Voice of China and Tibet literary event, featuring standout pieces from its three year coverage of exiled and persecuted writers. READ
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