The Soul Pitt – Keeping You Connecting with Pittsburgh's Minority Community!

Phase III Softball Bowling Party
When: 4/21/12 | Time: 10 pm-1 am
Where: Swissvale Arcade Lane, 7518 Dickson St Swissvale Pa 15218
Donation: 15.00 | Includes:  Bowling , Food And Beer
For Tixs Call:   Wayne Wolford 412-298-0573
Mike Richburg 412-758-7763 or Bill Jones 412-378-5644

by C. Denise Johnson

Sometimes it’s hard to appreciate greatness when you see it every day. Those snippets of nirvana can become routine and taken for granted when it surrounds you all the time and it’s only after that daily aesthetic is gone that in hindsight you realize what you’ve missed. Such is the case with Black Pittsburgh.

Excellence and greatness was part of the mid-20^th century with the two best Negro League baseball teams, Jazz luminaries, the National Negro Opera Company and likes of artists Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence all emanating from this singular speck of southwest Pennsylvania. It was all captured through the lens of Charles “Teenie” Harris’ camera and frequently ended up on the pages of the Pittsburgh Courier.

Although many knew of his skills as a photographer, few were aware of the significance that his work would come to symbolize. Harris was so efficient and proficient in his craft that Pittsburgh Mayor David Lawrence dubbed him “One Shot.” In the course of his 40-plus year career as a photojournalist, Harris amassed more than 80,000 images. Although not a nationally-known photographer like James van der Zee (best-associated with the Harlem renaissance), Life magazine photographer Gordon Parks or Pulitzer Prize-winning Ebony magazine photographer Moneta Sleet, “Teenie” Harris’ work is arguably the largest comprehensive photographic documentation of a minority community in the United States. The late Clarence Rolla Turner, a sociologist and historian of Black history, said Harris’ work constitutes “one of the most complete chronologies of a black community in the United States.” Click Here for Full Details →

In September 2011, TheSoulPitt.com, announced our free smartphone app giving users 24/7 access to urban info and events in the region.

TheSoulPitt.com’s free mobile app that gives you the latest arts & entertainment updates for Pittsburgh and Western PA’s minority community.

Keep up with Soulful events going on in this region via your mobile phone!

CLICK HERE TO
DOWNLOAD THE APP

In the middle of the rain and the cold, a significant crowd still came out to support the African-American Heritage Day parade.  Drill teams to local non-profits, car clubs to gospel groups all marched down from the old civic arena to the new August Wilson Center perfoming, giving out promotional items and in Soul Pitt’s case we gave out black and gold beads!  Yes, by the time it was over, we were drenched in rain water, freezing cold, tired and nearly expired, but it was all worth it in the end to celebrate African-American culture in our region!  Make plans for next year…and yes, it still will take place rain or shine.
PS – Hats off to the parade planning committee and others involved each year to help make this event a success!