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City of Asylum (more formally City of Asylum/Pittsburgh) is a nonprofit organization based in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, that helps writers
exile Exile or banishment is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons ...
d from their countries for their controversial writing. Exiled writers accepted to the organization's program receive two years of financial and medical support for their families and up to four years of free housing. The aid is intended to provide the writers time and means to seek resettlement and adjust to life in the United States. Founded in 2004 by Henry Reese and Diane Samuels, the organization runs the Alphabet City venue, ''Sampsonia Way'' magazine, and Pittsburgh's Jazz Poetry Month. City of Asylum hosts more than 175 cultural and literary events every year which are free to the public. In 2016, it became the U.S. headquarters for the
International Cities of Refuge Network The International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN) is an independent organisation of cities and regions which offers shelter to writers, journalists and artists at risk of persecution, with the goal of advancing freedom of expression. History It ...
(ICORN), which called the organization a “model for the world.” In 2017, the organization converted an old
Masonic Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
lodge into their main headquarters, called Alphabet City.


History


Origin and establishment

After Pittsburgh couple Henry Reese and Diane Samuels heard
Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie ( ; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British and American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern wor ...
mention the more-than-50-city International Cities of Refuge Networking in Europe, they sought and received approval to create a new node in their own city. The couple bought a former drug house on Sampsonia Way in Pittsburgh's North Side. They joined the nearby
Mattress Factory The Mattress Factory is a contemporary art museum located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was a pioneer of site-specific installation art and features permanent installations by artists Yayoi Kusama, James Turrell, and Greer Lankton. The museu ...
and
Randyland Randyland is an art museum in the North Side section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is widely regarded as one of America's most colorful public art landmarks. Randy Gilson is the founder of this museum, which showcases found object art. Randy ...
to fight post-industrial blight in the
Mexican War Streets The Mexican War Streets, originally known as the "Buena Vista Tract," is a historic district that is located in the Central Northside neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The district is densely filled with restored row h ...
area. The organization was originally funded by donations from friends, an outlier among asylum programs which are typically under universities and other institutions. The original money raised was spent to provide housing, medical benefits, and a living stipend for a writer. The organization’s first author resident was
Huang Xiang Huang Xiang (; born on December 26, 1941) is a 20th-century Chinese poet and calligrapher who came to prominence following China's Cultural Revolution.Ald, Masha. January 10, 2010. Artist of the Week-Huang Xiang and William Rock. Retrieved Septemb ...
, a Chinese poet who had been sentenced to death in China for his participation in the Democracy Wall Movement. He and his wife Zhang Ling were granted asylum in the United States through City of Asylum. On August 12, 2022, Reese was preparing to interview Rushdie on stage in New York when an attacker stabbed the author. During the attack, Reese received facial lacerations and a black eye. He later said, "Don’t be intimidated, if anything you should be re-energized by what we have just been through...You can't give into being silenced."


Writers in Residence

At least 10 writers-in-exile have stayed for more than a year in City of Asylum apartments, while another 20 international artist-in-residence writers have stayed one to three months.


Mural Houses

Huang Xuang wanted to carve a poem into a mountain, but took Samuels' suggestion that he paint the poems on his house. The building became known as House Poem, and people have slipped their own poems into the mail slot. Other writers followed suit; as of 2021, five City of Asylum houses on Sampsonia Way have murals.


Projects


Alphabet City

In 2015, City of Asylum acquired a former Masonic Hall from the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh and launched a $12.2 million renovation. The project received $8 million in tax credits and additional funding from local foundations. Dubbed Alphabet City, the building now houses administrative offices, the City of Asylum bookstore, and a restaurant. All events held at the space are free. City of Asylum Books, a separate entity from the non-profit organization, specializes in international and translated literature. The first restaurant to open in the renovated Alphabet City was Casellula, a cheese and wine cafe with a strict no-tipping policy. The restaurant closed in late 2017, weeks after staff aired grievances on "Tipped Off", a restaurant industry blog. From 2018 to 2020, the restaurant space housed Brugge on North, a branch of Pittsburgh restaurants Point Brugge and Park Brugge. The current restaurant is called 40 North.


Jazz Poetry Month

Jazz Poetry was the first event put on by City of Asylum in 2005. It was a collaboration between Huang Xiang and jazz musician
Oliver Lake Oliver Lake (born September 14, 1942) is an American List of jazz saxophonists, jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, poet, and visual artist. He is known mainly for alto saxophone, but he also performs on soprano saxophone, soprano and flute. D ...
. City of Asylum continued to host Jazz Poetry annually. In 2016, the format changed from a single concert to a full month of concerts.


''River of Words''

''River of Words'' is a public art installation by exiled Venezuelan writer and artist resident Israel Centeno. The installation involved a choice of 100 words, all relevant to Pittsburgh, of which Mexican War Street neighbors were invited to display on the wall, door, or window of their houses. The representation of the words were designed by Venezuelan artists Carolina Arnal and Gisela Romero.


''Sampsonia Way'' magazine

The City of Asylum publishes a magazine called ''Sampsonia Way'' which has publishes English translations of exiled writers. The publication's goal is to fight censorship and celebrate free expression in literature.


References


External links

* {{Official website, https://cityofasylum.org/ Non-profit organizations based in Pittsburgh Organizations established in 2004 Performing arts in Pittsburgh Culture of Pittsburgh