City of Asylum FREE Jazz-Poetry Concert

CONTACT:             Debi Sciranka

cityofasylumpgh@aol.com

www.cityofasylumpittsburgh.org

412-965-0563

WHEN:          SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2008 / 7:30- 9:30 pm

WHERE:       330 Sampsonia Way -- North Side, Pittsburgh 15212

              In case of rain, concert will take place at the New Hazlett Theater

EVENT:  City of Asylum FREE Jazz-Poetry Concert

Jazz-Poetry Concert turns Sampsonia Way— a tiny inner-city alley on Pittsburgh’s North Side—into a site of world-class performances spanning the disciplines of art, literature and music.  The Concert promotes awareness of increasing global repression of literary writers, and showcases inter-cultural, multi-disciplinary collaborations with multi-cultural perspectives.  Sampsonia Way is closed to traffic and filled with chairs, a stage and giant projection screen are set up, and speakers are placed hundreds of feet down the street, to accommodate the audience of over 700.  For this day, Pittsburgh is the center of the world when it comes to defending and exemplifying free expression.  Featuring jazz great, Oliver Lake, and 9 poets from around the world.  In case of rain, concert moves to New Hazlett Theater.

ORGANIZATION:  CITY OF ASYLUM/PITTSBURGH

City of Asylum/Pittsburgh provides temporary sanctuary to creative writers under threat of imprisonment, persecution, or death in their native countries.   Residencies provided by City of Asylum/ Pittsburgh allow the writer to continue to write, while awaiting a return from exile to his or her native country or while making a transition to a potentially permanent exile.