In a report issued by the city of Pittsburgh’s Gender Equity Commission released a white paper this past September that shows just how stark African Americans’ chances for survival are in Pittsburgh. Black people, especially women in just about every other comparable city in the U.S. are doing far better in terms of health, income, employment, and educational outcomes than black people living in Pittsburgh. As a 3rd generation black woman from Pittsburgh, I find this information troubling and reassuring. While I have only lived in the Pittsburgh area for about seven years, I have experienced and witnessed more microaggressions and blatant racism here than in my upbringing in a conservative Southern town. What is most interesting about being a millenial transplant in Pittsburgh, I often hear in conversations of how “woke” and how rapidly Pittsburgh is changing. While this is largely due to gentrification, I have been thinking about how this “change” affects Pittsburgh’s black cultural history. Once the hub of jazz musicians such as Mary Lou WIlliams and Billy Strayhorn and black artists, now we have circulating galleries of Van Gogh and Kenny Chesney concerts. I wonder if these new and more popular attractions mirror the same eradication of black bodies in Pittsburgh’s historically black spaces?

To be a black woman in America will always come with its challenges. This is not locale specific. There are times where my professionalism and work ethic, or the manner in which I carry myself will always be something that is challenged or observed and I know this will never change. But as I live in Pittsburgh, one lingering thought prevails: will I have to move to ensure I have some modicum of success?

My project explores women of color and their relationship to Pittsburgh and their experiences of being a woman of color in general. I interviewed family members and friends and asked for their opinions and to share their stories. What surprised me most about this project was the openness and willingness to be so real and so honest with me. For some of these women my interviews gave them the space of catharsis and encouraged them to contemplate on a matter which many people don’t concern themselves with: the black woman’s perspective. Historically, women of color are expected to be the pillars of community and family. Their struggles and opinions positioned outside of verbalized approval and consent are irrelevant in the grander scheme of black success. I wanted to highlight a few of the women who shaped me to be the person that I am. I wanted to share these beautiful women and their beautiful minds and demonstrate the value of the woman of color’s existence.

My project is threefold to mirror the three rivers which outline the curves of Pittsburgh’s body. First, I created a poem which is comprised of lines from all ten of August Wilson’s plays. I chose August Wilson as a foregrounding because his plays center around family and demonstrate the strong black women archetype. In many of Wilson’s plays the women are what hold the family together and drive them towards success. As the women in my project were the supporting beam in my upbringing and shaping of identity, I wanted to pay homage to Pittsburgh’s son and the women in my family whose blood, sweat, and tears have been shed here. Secondly, with these lines I made signs and took pictures of the women in my family. I wanted to orchestrate a found poem that best articulated the voices of these women and stitch together a larger narrative that would essentially simulate a poem of advice through arranged photographs. Lastly I incorporated the interviews of the women holding signs within my video. The women I interviewed ranged from 22 to 97 in age which I think is the most captivating thing about my project. In having such a diverse range of perspective it is evident that women in Pittsburgh have been struggling much longer than Pittsburgh’s Gender Equity Commission would like to give credit to. It also points to support the argument that things in Pittsburgh still need to change.

This project came the idea that while I was not born in PIttsburgh, I have always considered it my home. Be that as it may, I have always had a complicated relationship with Pittsbugh that is comprised of elements of both joy and sadness. Perhaps this is what it means to be a black female Pittsburgher; to thrive and suffer in the face of adversity courses within my veins and is planted firmly in my roots. This is why the women in my family are strong, independent, and successful: we are made of steel.