The Workshop and the brand-new Text & conText Lab, a collaboration with the University Library System, are now open by appointment Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Full details and a link to reserve your visit are available on our website. 

Learn the basics of capturing good sound for your films, podcasts, and other media projects, and experiment with foley, reproducing everyday sound effects like footsteps, door creaks, and more, with objects from around your house. Details and registration here.

Thank you to our extended Pitt community! On our first Pitt Day of Giving ever last month, you helped us beat both our initial and our stretch goals, raising over $2000 to support creativity at Pitt. You also secured us a coveted leaderboard spot, unlocking an extra $500 in challenge funds. Check out the Pitt Day of Giving "thank you" video (especially the part at 00:16). We can't wait to see what you make next!

Before YouTube channels or blogs, there were zines. Learn how to make your own zine in this fun, interactive workshop! From brainstorming your topic(s) to selecting and generating content to constructing your booklet, this is a crash course in getting started. Details and registration here.

Our spring "In Our Own Write" reading and conversation series wraps up with two LGBTQ+ writers with Pitt connections!

Willie Lee Kinard III is a poet, art director, and sound artist, and a current MFA candidate in Creative Writing at Pitt. A graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Visual Art, his musings include surrealist portraiture, gospel deep cuts, Black folklore, and superstition.

Aaron Smith earned his MFA in creative writing at Pitt and is the author of four books of poetry published by the Pitt Poetry Series. A three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, he currently teaches creative writing at Lesley University.

See our webpage for details and links to sign up for one or both!

Calls for Submission

Pitt’s Student Government Board invites submissions from student artists (or groups of student artists) for the design of a public mural on campus. Deadline to submit: Tuesday, March 30.  

All current Pitt undergraduates who have attended at least one Writers’ Café session this academic year (September 2020–March 2021) are invited to submit poetry or prose. Deadline to submit: Friday, April 2.  

How would you describe 2020? Express yourself through spoken word, painting, music, DIY projects, poetry, and more. Student entries eligible for prize raffles! Deadline to submit: Monday, April 12.  

All members of the Pitt community and community at large are invited to submit creative works of any kind relevant to aspects of their identity as part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Deadline to submit: Friday, June 4.  

Save the date for the world premiere of CHASING COVID, a short film that takes us inside the lab of Pitt's Center for Vaccine Research, where Dr. Paul Duprex, Director and Jonas Salk Chair, and his team work to defeat COVID-19 — and where they continue to work on options to protect us from the virus's emerging variants. 

Following the film, stay for a panel discussion focused on how vaccines go from the lab to the public; questions around vaccine hesitancy, equity, and distribution; and why it is so critical to help good information about vaccines “go viral.”

CHASING COVID is presented by the Center for Creativity and the University Library System,

Creativity in the Community

• Ongoing | Art's Work in the Age of Biotechnology
• Mar. 27 | Project Potter Wizard Rock Virtual Concert
• Mar. 27-28 | Pitt-Greensburg Theatre Company presents Dark Hamlet 
• Mar. 30 | Dreaming Workshop: Afro-Indigenous Futures—Reflections on (Post-)colonial Pasts, Presents and Futures
   
• Apr. 6 | Expanding the Horror Canon: A Conversation with Jewelle Gomez and Michelle Lane
• Apr. 7 | Estrofem Lab: Estrogen Geeking
• Apr. 8 | Book Talk with Deesha Philyaw, author of "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies"
• Apr. 9 | The Crossroads Album: Exploring Jewish and African-American Histories in the Hill District through Sound
• Apr. 9 | Alebrije Workshop
• Apr. 9-11 | UPStages: Carrie and Francine
• Apr. 10 | African Music and Dance Spring Concert
• Apr. 11 | Carlos A. Aguilera: Live Reading
• Apr. 14 | "Of Sounds and Re-sounds" ft. Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Natalie Diaz, & lê thị diễm thúy