If You're Reading This in 2116, I'm Glad You Made It.
I was invited by Sue Kerr, author of Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents blog found at www.pghlesbian.org to present with her and archivist & librarian, Megan Massanelli at Pittsburgh Pod Camp…
No Colour Barred
I was in London to see The Edge Fund two weeks ago for my work as a Program Officer for The Heinz Endowments (I've written about the Edge Fund before) and was taken by the fierce Isis Amlak, the chair of Edge…
Expanding Hillombo
So, I am going to be expanding what I write about here at Hillombo. The Hill District has been my home for 20 + years as a place to be a part of a physical Black community and to bring to ground the ideas of Black Studies…
Talking To Ourselves Because We Are Our Own Consultants
This past Sunday I was able to catch the second half of a talk given by an artist named Rick Lowe at the Open Engagement Conference held here this past weekend…
Planning, Art & Identity in the Hill District
Very productive Arts Plan meeting sponsored by the Hill District Consensus Group last week, March 17th. I am on the steering committee along with Tanika Harris…
Still thinking of a Master (Arts) Plan
Rolling again on the Hill District Consensus Group Arts Plan! Meeting this Tuesday at 6 pm at the Hill House Kaufmann Program Center. One of the things we'll discuss is what…
Whites fighting racism: what it's about
These kinds of white voices will stimulate thought and justice in the development conversations about the Hill District. While I believe this is piece is written by a white person and is about…
Stories We Tell & Stories We Don't: Racial Peekaboo in the Lives of Youth
I recently read Everything I Never Told You by Pittsburgher/Ohioan, Celeste Ng, who grew up here and in Shaker Heights, OH. The story is set in a small, all-white town in Ohio…
Don't Call It A Comeback
Alright, let's get back in the saddle here. Hillombo has sat idle while I have taken to posting more stuff on fb, writing a blog…
Thinking of a Hill Art Plan
A couple of weeks ago, the Hill District Consensus Group (for whom my wife works, I am a supporter and the organization I work for, The Heinz Endowments, is a funder) held…
Thinking and Talking about the Danger of "THOTS"
Demonstrating the cultural center role barbershops often play, I had a thought-provoking and somewhat troubling conversation with a broad range of African American men at Big Tom's…
The Stories They Dare Tell–True Stories of Hill Residents by Renee Aldrich
So after too many days of living in chaos after getting a delivery of furniture, I begin the arduous process of putting things back together again. Because on the front…
A Saturday Visit to Ujamaa's Garden and Cook-Out
This past Saturday stopped by the Ujamaa Collective's Community Cook-Out being held on Francis off of Bedford and got a chance to see longtime artists Bro. Tony Mitchell and Iya Bea Mitchell holding…
Happy Birthday to the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Your Spirit Still Lives in Hill District
August 17th. Couldn't let this day pass without a recognition to the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, born this day in 1887 in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica (also where my father spent part of his…
The Harriet Tubman Museum and Education Center: History as Future and Development
Recently came back from vacation in Ocean, Pines, MD (been vacationing from Hillombo as well and will do better on that front) and at my wife's suggestion the family took a day to go…