March Events Carnegie Library of Braddock

MARCH

MARCH 3
MAKING LIGHT
Join the Pittsburgh National Society of Black Engineers + learn to build your
very own reading lamp from scavenged materials found around the library.
ages 12 - 18

MARCH 10
SATURDAY 1-3pm
VERY OPEN STUDIOS
Discover what you can make in the Ceramics Studio and Neighborhood
Print Shop! Ceramic and screen printing activities will be offered so
you can try it out. all ages (under 8 accompanied by an adult)

MARCH 16
FRIDAY 4:30-7pm
A CELEBRATION OF KIDDISMS
AND BCLA’S ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAMS
Please join us in the premier of Jim Kidd’s (Braddock resident) limited
edition hand printed artist book. View the book along with other items from
his collection while welcoming our next resident artist, LaToya Ruby Frazier.
all ages (under 8 accompanied by an adult) MARCH 24 SATURDAY 12:00-4pm
*Please sign up for all events
at BCLA’s circulation desk
or call 412-351-5356MARCH 31

SATURDAY 10 am - 2pm
CERAMIC WATER FILTER WORKSHOP
Join Professor Richard Wukich and Professor Ian Nettleship for an intensive hands-on
session of learning to build ceramic water filters, the history, current uses, and the current reserch
and world-wide useability potential. Water borne diseases and access to clean water are some of the
world’s biggest health and sustainability challenges - the ceramic water filter is an economic
and production-friendly response to this urgent need. *$30 SUGGESTED DONATION
SATURDAY 10 - 2pm

GRAND OPENING FESTIVITIES of the
BCLA CHILDREN’S LIBRARY + TEEN SPACE
The Children‘s Library is bigger, better and has moved upstairs! Help us celebrate the
renovations and innovations in the 2nd floor of the library building. Games, art, food
and interactive activities will take place giving us a sneak peak of the programming
in the Children’s Library and Teen Space! all ages (under 8 accompanied by an adult)

Post Gazette Music Review of Built To Spill, Benefit Concert In Braddock

Tonight, Titus Andronicus and The Hold Steady take the stage in the last of three benefits at the Braddock Library. Seriously doubt it's not sold out.

Here's a nice review of Built to Spill's show in the Post Gazette with the critic honestly admitting he had never been in the town.

"The show I had to see was Built to Spill, because I love that band and somehow I've always missed them. I dig the Hold Steady too, but have seen them a bunch of times already.

What I realized getting there Friday night is that I thought Rankin was Braddock, so I drove around aimlessly for a while, not wanting to stop and ask the guys on the streetcorners, "Um, where is the library?" When I finally stumbled upon Braddock, I realized I hadn't been there before. Obviously, it's not the healthiest looking town and, other than the people going to the show, the streets were pretty deserted on a cold Saturday night."

Balanced, Realistic View of Life In Braddock: Mayor of Rust

I stopped talking about or linking to the stream of Braddock stories a while ago, as they became more and more shallow, dreamy and unrealistic.

A new, long in depth story in the latest NY Times Magazine gives a better idea of the issues and personal/political dynamics that might be going on.

Still reading and rereading with hopes of doing a longer post.Don't hold your breath.

Chile Cookoff In Braddock: Saturday April 10

To all those who like food,

Come down to the 4th Annual Braddock Carnegie Arts Program Chili Cook-Off. Great chili and you get the bowl!

Saturday, April 10


1-5 pm

And if you’ve got a wicked chili recipe and you want to show it off, with the chance to win a prize for best chili,
then let us know. The registration deadline has been extended.

See you down here!

Just Wanna Eat Chile?

Admission $8 for Members of Carnegie Library Association
$10 for Non Members
$5 For Children 12 and Under

Funds raised will go to kids programs in Braddock and Kids programs at The Braddock Carnegie Library.

Happening at the Braddock Elks Lodge:

424 Library Street
Braddock PA 15104

1-5 pm

While your there, check out the strange, historic town of Braddock, PA and perhaps meet some of the folks involved in new projects there.


View Larger Map

Support Braddock Projects On Pittsburgh Match Day, October 28th

As you may know, I personally feel the city of Pittsburgh and the country in general is in for a world of hurt. City budgets, state budgets and federal budgets will be cut -- one way or the other if we are to survive. The failure to make rational choices in the past will force us to make harder choices in the future. That's what debt on this scale means!

Anyway, on the 28th,Your donation to any area non-profit from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm EST will be matched 50 cents on the dollar by the Pittsburgh Foundation. It's a small chance to knit together the support networks of what used to be called "civil society", which the wikipedia defines as.

"Civil society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures of a state (regardless of that state's political system) and commercial institutions of the market."



Personally, I will try to support the little, historic but very troubled community of Braddock.

"Ninety percent of a community gone.
Buildings crumbling into the streets.
More youth living in poverty than anywhere else in Allegheny County outside Pittsburgh.

These issues are faced by Braddock, Pennsylvania. Decades of prosperity in this steelmaking town were followed by decades of slow decay after the American steel industry collapsed in the 1980s."

That's a bummer but it's not the "need" that has me stoked, but a mayor and a small community of engaged people doing some of the most exiting and innnovative things in the region, some of which you may have heard about on this blog.

"But in the midst of decay, a movement to renew is taking shape. Braddock Redux, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded by Braddock Mayor John Fetterman, is gathering the ideas, the people, and the resources that will spark life back into this once thriving town. Fetterman's pioneering work offers a vision for postindustrial America, and has garnered accolades in the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, and on the Colbert Report.


With a focus on projects that fuse youth, the arts, the environment, and building preservation, Braddock Redux has begun to revitalize its community by:

• Facilitating the construction of GrowPittsburgh's largest urban demonstration farm, staffed in part by local at-risk youth
• Securing support and funding for the Mon Valley's first green roof
• Providing partnership development for the Braddock Youth Project, Allegheny County's largest youth employment and training program
• Preserving and renovating a former school into an art gallery and performance space
• Building a mosaic park on a vacant lot
• Planting an urban orchard
• Providing space and funding for Braddock's only community center

But there is more work to do. Most pressingly, Braddock's community center lacks heat and cannot operate during the winter. Braddock Redux is raising money to install a climate-friendly geothermal heating system. The low operating cost of this system will allow hundreds of at-risk youth to use the community center when the temperature drops.

Your donation to Braddock Redux on October 28th from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm EST will be matched 50 cents on the dollar by the Pittsburgh Foundation, up to $2,500 per donation. Please visit www.pittsburghgives.org to register now and learn more about Braddock Redux, and on October 28th to make a donation. Matching funds are limited, and typically are exhausted within two hours on the day of the event."

Swoon @ Opening Of New Carnegie Library Silk-screen Studio

Sorry for the late heads up. Swoon, the legendary roving street artist with a love of Pittsburgh, will be speaking about her work and talking up the new screenprinting studio at the Carnegie Library in Braddock tonight. She will likely also fill us in on progress on the former church in North Braddock being turned into a community arts center called The Tranformazium.

There will also be a screenprinting open studio with demos and the ceramics studio housed in the building will also be open.

From what I can tell on the poster-- the screenprinting and ceramics open studio runs from 5:30-7:30 and the Swoon artist's talk will start at 7:30.

More info on the Transformazium and how to support it can be found @ Transformazium.org

"Efforts to use the arts to grow Braddock continue with the grand opening of the Neighborhood Silk Screen Studio, a community resource facilitated by the artist collective known as Transformazium. The collective is based in an old church it's renovating as an art center, but the silk-screen studio is in the ever-more-bustling Braddock Carnegie Library. At tonight's reception, enjoy silk-screening demos, an open house at the library's ceramic studio, and a conversation about art in the neighborhood featuring Transformazium's Swoon. A renowned, New York-based street artist, Swoon's beautiful life-sized portraits graced underused Pittsburgh buildings for months after an exhibit she did in Braddock a couple years back."

BRADDOCK ZINE SHOW

Saturday, July 28th, Jessica and I headed East to see The Zine Scene show: Braddock nine-year olds being encouraged by librarians and library students to make their own zines. Each zine displayed also featured one page blown up and mounted. Above are some highlights, and, here's the article from the City Paper.