How Pittsburgh Will Conquer Space
If the biosciences are to medicine what steel was to manufacturing, then Pittsburgh is on the cusp of its next great economic boom. Ashok Trivedi believes that we are. Trivedi is so bullish on the biological sciences that he endowed the just-launched $25 million Trivedi Institute for Space and Global Medicine at the University of …
Barebones’ “Infinite Life” Offers a Night of Revelatory Drama
Between the actor and the viewer exists a crucial component of the theatrical experience: the character of the space between them. Size of stage, type of stage, and distance between the audience and the stage are rarely cited as qualities that engender the success of a play, but I would argue, after experiencing Barebones Productions’ …
Attempt
Attempt I’m trying to seehow far a man can walkwhile standing still. Maybe that is death:falling asleep, and travelling so far inside the bodyyou can’t find your way out again. Winter nights, a few small cloudsshriveled up like chicken hearts. The wind chasing its own tail forever. I’m here, my love,I’m still alive. I’m singing …
The Art of Determination
Thomas Solich is the owner of Solich Piano & Music, which has stores in Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, and, as of 2022, Pittsburgh. Blind since birth, he became a champion wrestler, classically trained pianist and successful entrepreneur, becoming one of the largest Yamaha piano dealers in the U.S. Solich lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife …
Mayor O’Connor, Let’s Travel to Japan and Show Our Appreciation
Mark Twain’s famous quote, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes,” can easily apply to our region today. Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania are in the midst of a renewed period of self-evaluation. While there are some who perceive our future with pessimism, I tend to believe the opposite. Our region is now uniquely positioned …
Pittsburgh Opera’s “Time To Act” Asks What If Sophocles Wrote “The Breakfast Club”?
We may not know much about how Ancient Greek drama was performed, but we do know that it was fundamentally a musical, and more pointedly, a choral event. Furthermore, according to scholar Peter Wilson, it was the “sixteenth-century Florentine pioneers of opera who conceived of their new cultural project as basically a regeneration of Greek …
BLACK AND WHITE
BLACK AND WHITE The rabbit lawn on the north side, between the railroad tracks and highway, is deserted but for these five blackbirds and a limp fence of yellow tape.The boy in jeans lay spread-eagled on the asphalt, unblinking when the sun first stepped between the bright clouds. I began to write that I still …
Maz, You’re Up
In 2010, The Heinz History Center published Maz, You’re Up, a children’s book written by Kelly Mazeroski, Bill Mazeroski’s daughter-in-law. When Kelly was writing the book, Sally O’Leary, a good friend and, at that time, the Alumni Liaison for the Pittsburgh Pirates Alumni Association, told me that Kelly had never done anything like this before …
20 Years of Interviews, Pt. VII
Editor’s note: The Pittsburgh Quarterly team has interviewed many of the most interesting and noteworthy people in our “city-state of Pittsburgh” as my old editor and friend John Craig used to call this area. The number of interviews that have appeared in this magazine reaches well into the hundreds (writer Jeff Sewald alone has interviewed …
No News is Bad News
Within a day of the Jan. 7 news that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will close on May 3, I began receiving emails suggesting I create a group to save the paper or start a replacement. Why? Because I worked at The Pittsburgh Press and Post-Gazette for 20 years as an investigative reporter and business editor, and …
The Winter 2026 issue:
Pittsburgh Tomorrow
With Pittsburgh Tomorrow turning two years old, a citizen might ask: What is it and what is it doing? I publish this magazine, and I also started Pittsburgh Tomorrow, working with a great team to improve this region’s future. Pittsburgh Tomorrow is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) non-profit funded by Pittsburgh citizens — wealthy people and working …
Mystery and Reverie
“Do not (repeat: DO NOT) attempt to cross the creek during periods of high water. This is a significant waterway and the current can be very strong.” So said the Guide to the Quehanna Trail tucked in my backpack. But exactly how high was “high water”? Yes, it was spring, but it hadn’t rained for …
A Wintry Forest Trail Walk in Lawrence County
About an hour’s drive north of Pittsburgh in Lawrence County, Plain Grove Fens Natural Area is a wonderful place to visit. It’s just a few miles from the Slippery Rock exit off I-79, and once you’re there, you’re greeted with a 400-acre preserve featuring a hiking trail, hardwood forest, vernal pools and woodland stream. The …
20 Years of Interviews
Editor’s note: Since late 2005, we have interviewed many of the most interesting and noteworthy people in our “city-state of Pittsburgh” as my old editor and friend John Craig used to call this area. The number of interviews that have appeared in this magazine reaches well into the hundreds (writer Jeff Sewald alone has interviewed …
Steelers Cheerleaders?
Dedicated students of Steelers history are likely aware that Pittsburgh was the first NFL team to feature cheerleaders. The Steelerettes, composed of co-eds from what was then Robert Morris Junior College, were active from 1961 to 1969. But mention the Ingots — the Steelerettes’ male counterparts — to any Pittsburgh fan and the response is …
Purslane
Henry David Thoreau gathered purslane in a cornfield. He boiled and salted it and called it “a satisfactory dinner.” When writing about the plant in Walden, he made sure to include its Latin name — Portulaca oleracea — “on account of the savoriness of the trivial name.” By trivial name, I assume he’s referring to …
Heavyweight Champion John L. Sullivan’s Wild Bouts in McKeesport and Allegheny City
“The air of Pittsburgh has been thicker today than at any time since the discovery and general use of natural gas,” intoned an unnamed editorialist for the Pittsburgh Post on September 19, 1886. “But not as in the old time with smoke however but with pugilism.” On the previous evening, heavyweight boxing champion John L. …
20 Years of Interviews, Pt. III
Editor’s note: The Pittsburgh Quarterly team has interviewed many of the most interesting and noteworthy people in our “city-state of Pittsburgh” as my old editor and friend John Craig used to call this area. The number of interviews that have appeared in this magazine reaches well into the hundreds (writer Jeff Sewald alone has interviewed …
20 Years of Interviews, Pt. II
Editor’s note: Since late 2005, we have interviewed many of the most interesting and noteworthy people in our “city-state of Pittsburgh” as my old editor and friend John Craig used to call this area. The number of interviews that have appeared in this magazine reaches well into the hundreds (writer Jeff Sewald alone has interviewed …
Create Happiness in Your Holiday Shopping
As holiday shoppers buy candy, coffee, baked goods or ice cream this year, they’ll be able to purchase with purpose, working with stores and staffs with special needs. Just 34 percent of working-age adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are employed, compared with 83 percent in the overall population. While larger stores such as …
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