Immigration

Photo courtesy of City of Asylum

City of Asylum Pittsburgh is a cross-cultural literary arts organization that provides sanctuary to a network of creative writers who have previously been silenced through the threat of persecution, imprisonment, or death in their native countries. It was opened in 2004 by co-founders Henry Reese, a businessman, and Diane Samuels, an artist. City of Asylum @ Alphabet City, its cultural center, bridges newcomers and longer-term populations by using the literary arts as vehicle to highlight the stories of exiled writers among longstanding groups interested in broader cultural exchange. In addition to literary events, City of Asylum hosts 60 jazz concerts and screens over 30 film events annually.

City of Asylum Pittsburgh is currently one of the only U.S. branches of the 60-city International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN). Writers and their families are provided tailored support services that include a restored house on Sampsonia Way, a stipend, medical benefits, travel expenses to the U.S., legal services, and direct support of their specific literary creative endeavors (commissioning translations, identifying publishers, or providing adaptation support for family members).

Apart from cross-cultural exchange, City of Asylum acts as a driver of local economic development by transforming abandoned and neglected homes in Pittsburgh’s Northside neighborhood into creative cultural spaces with text-based public art. What separates City of Asylum from other writer’s residency programs is its commitment to helping writers reclaim their lives and adapt to a new host society where persecuted writers are free to express themselves. Long-term support continues after a writer’s two-year residency has concluded with, for example, rent-free housing that has no term limit.

City of Asylum’s first program launched when Chinese poet Huang Xiang covered his Sampsonia Way residence with Chinese calligraphy of his poems – soon to be known as “house publications.” The project came to be known as “House Poem,” and elicited an overwhelming response from neighbors and visitors who began to exchange poems with Xiang or attended Xiang’s poetry readings. “House Poem” set the stage for the future of City of Asylum: a street-wide network of multiple restored homes on Sampsonia Way, simultaneous artists in residence, and a growing series of house publications that transformed neighborhood facades into a public library. In 2005, a year after opening, City of Asylum added their Jazz Poetry Concert as a way to pair music with the literary arts. In 2006, City of Asylum added monthly readings with non-resident international authors. In 2007, more programs flourished under the Writers in the Gardens program, and short-term Visiting Writer Residencies. Other programs include the Sampsonia Way publication, an online journal of free speech, and a Sister Cities exchange program with Belgium.

In 2016, City of Asylum developed Alphabet City, a permanent home for small-scale literary and jazz programs, offices, a bookstore, and an affordable restaurant. In 2013, the organization completed Garden to Garden Artway, two distinct pathways programmed with a new series of temporary and community-based residencies in renovated vacant properties, including the Alphabet Reading Garden. The Artway has launched new partnerships for City of Asylum, including with Cave Canem Poets and Greater Pittsburgh Art Council’s Office of Public Art. “Culture doesn’t have to be intimidating. Writers lose their identity when they come [to the U.S.],” commented Reese. “They’re alienated from their language, their country. In addition to establishing your career path as a writer, you’re also trying to re-establish your identity. City of Asylum helps them access this.”

Photo by Studio Loz Feliz, courtesy of KDI 

Kounkuey Design Initiative (KDI) is socially-engaged design and community development organization committed to supporting the physical and social improvement of underserved communities. Established in 2006 by six students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the founders of Kounkuey (the Thai word for “getting to know”) realized the future of design relied on community members as co-authors in the design process. Based in Los Angeles with an office in Kenya, KDI has worked on participatory planning projects in the U.S., Africa, and Latin America.  KDI draws on an arsenal of expertise from architects, landscape architects, engineers, urban planners, and community organizers to position the communities they serve at the center of their projects from start to finish. KDI increases access to resources and builds connections between public and private actors by using social design techniques to create “productive public spaces” in underserved areas – public spaces that address the economic and social conditions of the area. 

One of KDI’s ongoing projects is located in California’s North Shore, an unincorporated area of Riverside County adjacent to the Salton Sea.  With a population of 3,500, the rural area is comprised of a predominantly seasonal Mexican agricultural community in the Eastern Coachella Valley. Once a popular tourist destination for boaters during the 1960s and 70s, the area fell into decline due to the high salinity in the Salton Sea and failed attempts to revive tourism. The negative perception of the area is pervasive; it is fueled by poverty and a lack of basic civic services and infrastructure, including schools, transportation, grocery stores, and parks. 

In 2013, KDI began to work with residents and community activists to design the area’s first public space – a way to connect residential areas. Through the support of Riverside County’s Desert Recreation District, what was intended to be less than an acre soon became a five-acre public park. Multimedia designer Shannon Scrofano and artist Evelyn Serrano engaged community members by leading a cultural asset mapping exercise, one that would uncover local creativity and inform “situaciones” – site-specific cultural interventions for inter-generational outreach. Other programs include a teen-produced, DIY news program called the “The Salty Bottom Show;” a bi-monthly, bi-lingual print and online community newspaper about local history and community development titled El Progreso; support of Delicias Laguna Azul, a local women’s culinary entrepreneurship program connected to a new farmer’s market; and Desert Riderz, a bike co-op. 

“The North Shore and communities like it are often times not credited for the work or the momentum they’ve established. Communities and individuals are not just waiting for someone to come solve the problem for them,” said Chelina Odbert, Co-founder and Executive Director, Kounkuey Design Initiative. “They are actively trying to solve the problem in the best way that they know how. We are just trying to help them reach whatever goal they have.” The park broke ground in spring 2016 and opened in September 2016. The park includes kiosks for vendors, picnic areas, a skate park, shaded pavilions for gathering, community-designed artwork, and the area’s first athletic (soccer) fields. 

Apart from community-informed civic improvements, another one of Nuestro Lugar’s key benefits has been its ability to bring critical resources and funding to the North Shore. With grants from The California Endowment, Surdna Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and ArtPlace America, resources include new and expanded public space, a farmer’s market, place-based public art, transportation infrastructure in the form of a bicycle sharing program, and a resident-led cultural council called the North Shore Arts Committee. Perhaps the strongest sustained effort to creatively increase access to previously unavailable resources has been securing funding from the County of Riverside and State of California. Prior to Nuestro Lugar, the state and county had not committed any funds to support water and transportation infrastructure in the area. As the number of immigrants grew in the unincorporated area of the North Shore, the need for water and transportation infrastructure became essential to satisfy basic quality of life needs.  Each of these elements has given shape to a new, empowered narrative for community members of North Shore.