Pittsburgh Magazine featured City of Asylum in its March issue. “Meet the New Neighbors,” by Christine H. O’Toole, is not only a walk on Sampsonia Way, it’s also a glimpse of its writers, neighbors and the magazine that bears its name.
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Video editing and production by Glen Wood “All of our heroes have blood on their hands,” the poet Yusef Komunyakaa muses in this interview about the history of racism in the United States. Over his more …
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Trumpeter Freddie Hendrix already has a lifetime worth of accomplishments with five albums as a sideman for George Benson, Bradford Hayes, Melvin Davis, New Jersey City University Jazz Ensemble, and most recently Rufus Reid. In this video, Hendrix shares his thoughts of City of Asylum/ Pittsburgh’s 2010 Jazz Poetry Concert.
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This video features Trumpeter Eddie Allen. Known for his versatility, Eddie Allen participated in the 2010 Jazz Poetry Concert. He is also the founder of Sãlongo, a 7-piece band that brings together Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music to create a fresh and inventive sound.
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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.
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Saxophonist and Trombone player Alfred Patterson moves just as easily between musical styles: he was a member of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, toured with the American Ballet Company, played in the pit orchestras for musicals such as “Dreamgirls” and “La Cage Aux Folles,” and jammed with the Count Basie and Duke Ellington Orchestras. In this video, Patterson discusses sound, poetry, and the nature of improvisation.
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Renée Alberts, curator of the Carnegie Library’s Sunday Poetry & Reading Series, reports on the 2010 Poets Forum. Presented in New York City by the Academy of American Poets, the forum provided a platform for an array of opinions, topics and styles of contemporary poetry.
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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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This year, the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of International PEN, celebrates 50 years of defending freedom of expression around the world with a year-long campaign – Because Writers Speak their Minds. As part of this campaign, the Committee looks back on 50 emblematic cases illustrating how and why they have worked. One case on this list is story of Mansur Rajih. This poet was the first International Cities of Refugee Network’s guest writer in Stavanger, Norway, where he arrived in 1998 after spending 15 years in prison in Yemen.
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In this video created by Rattapallax magazine exclusively for Sampsonia Way, the poet Edward Hirsch talks about Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s deep and lasting influence on him.
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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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