Oh the humanities: Pittsburgh Humanities to be held March 24-26
Mustapha Azab
Political satirist Bassem Yousef will be a featured speaker during the 2017 Pittsburgh Humanities Festival March 24 through 26 presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Humanities Center of Carnegie Mellon University.
Denise Oliver-Velez, a political activist that was part of the Black Panther movement in the 1960s, will talk about women of the revolution during the 2017 Pittsburgh Humanities Festival March 24 through 26 presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Humanities Center of Carnegie Mellon University. (Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust.)
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Humanities Center of Carnegie Mellon University is partnering for the 2017 Pittsburgh Humanities Festival March 24-26 for 鈥渟mart talk about stuff that matters.鈥�
鈥淚t was my idea and it came from my awareness of a Chicago humanities festival which is more than 25 years old. It was started by the Illinois Humanity Council and has since become an independent non-profit that has programs all around. It is kind of a big deal,鈥� said David R. Shumway, director of the Humanities Center and professor of English, and Literary and Cultural Studies at Carnegie Mellon University. 鈥淎s director at Carnegie Mellon University I saw a humanities festival as a way to bring humanities to the public to have an event to be designed mainly for the general public rather than students and faculty.鈥�
Once Shumway had decided he wanted to bring such a festival to Pittsburgh, he traveled to see what other locations were offering including The Festival of Ideas in Adelaide, Australia.
This year蘑菇视频 festival marks the second year for the event, with the first being in 2015, and several guest speakers and panels are slated to participate.
鈥淭he central items of the program of the festival are the core conversations. They are one hour time slots and there will be 24 of those. They will talk about what it means being human,鈥� explained Randal Miller, director of dancing programing and special projects with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. 鈥淲e have people talking about artificial intelligence, there is going to be a topic about white supremacy. We will have the 鈥楬ave-A-Chat for Humanity,鈥� a call at large for people to present a talk about a topic that is of interest for them.鈥�
In addition to these core programs, the festival will also have featured events.
鈥�(We want) to kind of bridge that gap, coming back to the idea that we are taking the huminites out of the academic setting and trying to make them entertaining as well. The clear thought for me was to bridge that gap with comedy,鈥� said Miller.
鈥淚n addition to the core conversations we will be opening the festival with the writers of The Onion, then we will have political satirist Bassem Yousef, the creator of the first every 鈥楧aily Show鈥� type in the Middle East. We will have at the August Wilson Center, Kathleen Neal Cleaver and Denise Oliver-Velez, that were associated with the Black Panther movement of the 60s talking about women of the revolution.鈥�
According to Shumway, when booking this year蘑菇视频 participants, they were looking for, 鈥淧eople who have something interesting to say and people who can say it in an entertaining way.鈥�
鈥淚deally someone we have seen in person so they can give us a run down on how they perform, We spend a lot of time watching YouTube and seeing how they do at that venue,鈥� he added. 鈥淲e try to get a mix of topics.鈥�
The Pittsburgh Humanities festival offers a variety of tickets and packages that can be purchased for the event.
鈥淭hey (people wanting tickets) can go to trustarts.org or call the box office. The way that it works is that the festival pass is $20 and that will get you access to the core conversations that takes place over two days. Each of the featured events are ticketed separately. Tickets start at $20 for all of them. You can go to all the core conversations for $80,鈥� said Miller.
Also available is student pricing for those with valid ID.
鈥淲e hope they (festival participants) will come away feeling they enjoyed themselves and they were stimulated intellectually,鈥� said Shumway. 鈥淏ut, also I guess we hope they will come away with recognition that the humanities are vital for our nation and for our educational system.鈥�
鈥淚t comes back to an idea that was a quote that David Shumway made at the first one (festival) for people to realize that it is not carrots, it蘑菇视频 cake. It is not that it is just healthy for you, it is yummy too,鈥� said Miller. There is entertainment value in this as well. Smart talk about conversations that are relevant and important are not boring and stuffy, they can be entertaining as well.鈥�
For more information about the Pittsburgh Humanities Festival, go online to trustarts.org.