Still Blooming In The Whirlwind: Pittsburgh’s Rich History Of Being A Mecca For Black Art

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T ucked away on the outskirts of Pennsylvania is a small city with a storied legacy of soul-stirring Black art. Most Americans may know Pittsburgh for its history of steel making, but the city’s vibrant, Black art culture is its beating heart. From self-taught photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris, to playwright August Wilson, Smoketown has always been at the center of Black artistic expression in the United States.

Today, a new generation of practitioners is continuing that tradition. And whether it’s music, on stage or a canvas, creatives who call Pittsburgh’s Black art community home thrive by supporting one another.

NewsOne recently partnered with Bakari Kitwana, internationally known cultural critic, journalist, political analyst, activist, and author of the groundbreaking book The Hip-Hop Generation (2002). Kitwana, who also previously served as Editor-in-Chief of The Source magazine, is now Executive Director of Rap Sessions , an organization which for the last fourteen years has conducted over 150 town halls around the nation on difficult dialogues facing the Hip-Hop and millennial generations.

Through his latest venture, the Authentic Intelligence Media Project, Kitwana decided to take a closer look at the enduring legacy of Black art in Pittsburgh.

“The history of Black people in America is too often reduced to limited narratives that betray our totality, when how we evolved into the present is such an expansive story,” Kitwana said. “I’ve traveled to 48 of the 50 states and I’ve consistently witnessed Black creatives at work; yet, too often the artists operating far beyond NYC, Chicago and LA are overlooked. There is Black creative genius in many of these places–including Pittsburgh.”

“Artists like Selma Burke, Lena Horn, Billy Strayhorn and August Wilson are inspiring parts of that story, and that legacy continues,” Kitwana shared with NewsOne. “I wanted to take a look at artists who were continuing in this tradition, so I chose to highlight the cohort of Black creatives who won grants in 2023 from the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Initiative. I reached out to Kirsten West Savali earlier this year and pitched the idea of iOne Digital as a space to publish the series. She loved the idea and agreed.”

Just as iron sharpens iron, creatives inspire creatives, and the series blossomed and evolved in scope. In the 10-minute video featured here, NewsOne spoke with artists, scholars, folks working in philanthropy and those building and maintaining Pittsburgh Black arts institutions to gain insight into this ongoing legacy.

“In a nation that has, since its inception, tried to deny Black people the right to create freely, Black art is freedom—and that freedom is a superpower that can create worlds, destroy illusions, and transform lives,” said journalist Kirsten West Savali, iOne Digital VP of Content, who also served as executive producer and producer on this wide-ranging project. “ Artists are sacred vessels, protectors of what Amiri Baraka called our ‘omm bomm ba boom,’ and the epitome of what Gwendolyn Brooks calls in The Second Sermon on the Warpland , ‘the last of the loud…blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind.’”

“iOne Digital’s Content team is thrilled to partner with Bakari Kitwana and the Authentic Intelligence Media Project to recognize and platform some of Pittsburgh’s most innovative and brilliant Black artists,” West Savali continued. “Artists who extend us an invitation into their hearts, souls, and deepest selves, which, in turn, encourages us to explore and become more intimately familiar with our own.“

NewsOne Presents Still Blooming In The Whirlwind: Pittsburgh As A Black Cultural And Artistic Mecca

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