Culture Archives - Page 2 of 41 - Pittsburgh Quarterly

Historian and biographer David McCullough, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, said that his strength as a writer was his love of storytelling. Over his brilliant career, he wrote about remarkable events — the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and Panama Canal — and remarkable people …

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Arts

Pittsburgh Ballet’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Reaches for the Sublime

by Stuart Sheppard

We are often surprised by the little things we find when someone passes away, things we were perhaps not aware of, or things that were saved because they carried an importance we didn’t realize. In the case of my mother, who passed not long ago, I found, in her closet, the ballet shoes she wore …

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Books

Refreshing Candor Imbues the Senator’s ‘Unfettered’

by Fred Shaw

The poet Rainer Maria Rilke once said, “The only journey is the one within.” For people experiencing tough times (and the accompanying feeling of doom that might follow), it’s an important consideration. John Fetterman also regards those moments as important turning points in his life, and there are more than a few bumps to balance …

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Opinion

A Pittsburgh Legacy

by Samuel Hazo

Pittsburgh is known for many things, but some of its most significant legacies are largely unknown or underplayed. Among the most famous are as the steel capital of the U.S., with the city’s contribution to the allied victory in World War II best described by Winston Churchill as the war that was won by steel. …

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History

The Horseless Carriage Comes to Pittsburgh

by John G. Hennon

The weather in Pittsburgh was rather bleak during March 1896. Snow and sub-freezing temperatures were the norm. Nicer weather arrived on March 10, so two young men took that opportunity to test a remarkable new apparatus. Anyone who was on the streets of the East End that day caught a glimpse of the first automobile …

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Books

Character Studies Drive Drue Heinz Winner

by Fred Shaw

There’s a delicious sense of duality that runs through the lead characters in Bill Gaythwaite’s debut story collection, A Place in the World, winner of the 2025 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. It’s a trait wielded prominently by Katie, the protagonist of short story “Off the Grid,” who recalls her former bouncer boyfriend Nick returning a …

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Opinion Profiles

50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. VII

by PQ Staff

Editor’s Note: We asked Pittsburgh leaders to give their prescriptions for Mayor Corey O’Connor on how to build a bright future for Pittsburgh. Their answers follow. Previously in this series: 50 Leaders Give Their Rx for Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O’Connor, Pt. VI Alex Dick, Co-Founder, Dick Building Company Divisiveness dominates national politics while capital and talent …

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Opinion

Don’t Save the Old PG, Create a Modern New One

by Bill Steigerwald

The new owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are now said to be in the process of figuring out which 50 of the 100 or so current journalists of the old PG to hire and how to run and finance a deliberately nonprofitable newspaper in the Digital Age. The last-minute rescue of the PG by the Venetoulis …

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PQ Poem

Tracing

by Noah Davis

Tracing My mother has two, six-inch long scars on the front of her shoulders as if heaven made a mistake and stitched wings on the wrong side and angels had to saw them off. But truthfully, while playing basketball, the bird of her bone simply fell from the nest of her joint. She was opened by a surgeon’s knifedifferently …

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American Spirit History

Elegy for an Irish American Catholic Family

by Mark Holan

My mother died in late November at the age of 95. She was the last surviving member of her Irish American Catholic family. Her passing closed the century-long story of a Pittsburgh archetype, once more familiar, now a faded shade of green. Her parents emigrated from rural County Kerry, separately and single, shortly before Ireland’s …

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PQ Poem

Ice Ball

by Frank Lehner

Ice Ball A couple of kids sniggering behind a corner mailbox in waitgot me good they did. One, off the top of my cool tossle cap and the second, a square plunk to the shoulder that stung.Then there they ran up Bell Avenue then left through Wilson’s yard vanished I could hear the laughing delight …

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Arts

Barebones’ “Infinite Life” Offers a Night of Revelatory Drama

by Stuart Sheppard

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’ …

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PQ Poem

Attempt

by Lloyd Wallace

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 …

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Opinion

Mayor O’Connor, Let’s Travel to Japan and Show Our Appreciation

by Dennis Unkovic

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 …

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PQ Poem

BLACK AND WHITE

by Marc Harshman

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 …

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Arts

Pittsburgh Opera’s “Time To Act” Asks What If Sophocles Wrote “The Breakfast Club”?

by Stuart Sheppard

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 …

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Arts

Public Theater’s Cinematic “An Enemy of the People”

by Stuart Sheppard

I have always loved the fact that, as a young man, James Joyce was so enamored of Henrik Ibsen that he learned Dano-Norwegian to read the playwright in his native language. And Joyce’s self-proclaimed first mature work, a play ironically called “A Brilliant Career,” was the story of a doctor battling the pestilence infecting a …

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Opinion

No News is Bad News

by Douglas Heuck

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 …

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History Sports

Heavyweight Champion John L. Sullivan’s Wild Bouts in McKeesport and Allegheny City

by Clayton Trutor

“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. …

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History Sports

Steelers Cheerleaders?

by Bob Fulton

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 …

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Opinion

20 Years of Pittsburgh Quarterly

by Douglas Heuck

In 2005, I left my job as business editor at the Post-Gazette to start this magazine. After 20 years at the Pittsburgh Press and PG, I could see the newspaper industry’s future. It was time for a change. I considered moving to another city — a growing city — and visited several. I thought of …

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Opinion Pittsburgh Tomorrow

Pittsburgh Tomorrow

by Douglas Heuck

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 …

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