Events

-Annual Black History Month Lecture to feature award-winning journalist and author-

The Smithsonian-affiliated Senator John Heinz History Center interprets and preserves African American history and culture year-round through a variety of events and exhibitions curated by the museum’s African American Program.

In recognition of Black History Month, the African American Program of the Heinz History Center will present a series of programs throughout February:

From Slavery to Freedom Film Series: “The Hero”

Wednesday, Feb. 12 • 5:30-8 p.m.

Virtual Program

Presented as part of the From Slavery to Freedom Film Series, “The Hero” tells an inspiring and honest story of how the Angolan people are trying to reconstruct their lives with dignity and resiliency after forty years of uninterrupted war.

The film also tells the story of Luanda, a city, like so many in the Third World, trying to absorb the millions of people displaced by civil strife and global economic change. After a 13-year national liberation struggle against the Portuguese colonialists ended with independence in 1975, Angola plunged immediately into a brutal civil war. The national MPLA government, backed initially by Cuba and the Soviet Union, and the UNITA rebels, supported by the U.S. and the South African apartheid regime, remained locked in conflict until 2003, long after the end of the Cold War itself. The virtual screening is free with advance registration. Please visit heinzhistorycenter.org/events to register.

11th Annual Black History Month Lecture: David J. Dennis, Jr.

Thursday, Feb. 20 • 6-7:30 p.m.

Heinz History Center

Presented by the History Center’s African American Program, this in-person lecture led by award-winning journalist and author David J. Dennis, Jr. will explore the remarkable life of a prominent leader and activist during the Civil Rights Movement – his father, David Dennis Sr.

Dennis Jr. will discuss his father’s role in organizing Freedom Rides, lunch counter sit-ins, and voter registration drives in the Jim Crow South, as told in his critically acclaimed book, “The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride.”

“The Movement Made Us” is a Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Bestseller, Nautilus Book Award Winner, and one of Kirkus Reviews 100 best nonfiction books of 2022.

An avid sports fan and sportswriter, Dennis Jr. is currently a senior writer at Andscape (formerly The Undefeated) and panelist on ESPN’s “Around the Horn.”

The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session and book signing.

To register, please visit heinzhistorycenter.org/events.

Long-Term Exhibits Highlight Black Heritage in Western Pa.

In addition to Black History Month programming, African American history is on display daily within the History Center’s six floors of exhibitions, including the award-winning From Slavery to Freedom exhibition, which explores more than 250 years of African American history in Western Pa. The long-term exhibit highlights the enslavement of Africans and its effect on the American economy, the history of the anti-slavery movement, the Underground Railroad, and the impact of 19th-century activism on the modern quest for civil and human rights in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation exhibition honors several African Americans who made trailblazing breakthroughs, including Dr. Velma Scantlebury, the nation’s first African American woman transplant surgeon and student of UPMC’s late Dr. Thomas Starzl.

The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is excited to announce the upcoming featured exhibition, Our Own Work, Our Own Way: Southern Modern Women Artists, running from Sunday, February 9, to Sunday, May 18, 2025. This exhibition highlights the significant contributions of women artists whose legacies were shaped by their experiences in the American South. The presentation of this exhibition also marks the launch of The Westmoreland’s Year of Women Artists, a yearlong initiative dedicated to celebrating the significant and often underrepresented contributions of women artists to American art history.

“Our Own Work, Our Own Way challenges the traditional narratives of American modern art by moving towards a more inclusive representation of the artists who helped shape it,” said Director/CEO Silvia Filippini-Fantoni, PhD. “We are pleased to share this important exhibition with our audiences to kick off the Year of Women Artists.”

Drawn from the exceptional holdings of The Johnson Collection, Our Own Work, Our Own Way brings together works by over 40 artists, including Anni Albers, Elaine de Kooning, Alma Thomas, and Ida Kohlmeyer, and spans the 1940s to the 2000s. The artists represented in the exhibition transcended the boundaries of their time, creating powerful work that challenged traditional gender roles and broke artistic conventions. While the South was slow to embrace gender equality, many of these artists found a supportive and nurturing environment within creative communities there. Despite the challenges they faced, these women helped define modernism and left their mark on the South’s artistic landscape. 

“We are thrilled to partner with The Westmoreland in presenting Our Own Work, Our Own Way as we travel this exhibition to a venue outside the South for the first time,” said Sarah F. Tignor, Director of The Johnson Collection. “It is wonderful to utilize our collection to shine a light on these groundbreaking women artists.”

The presentation of Our Own Work, Our Own Way: Southern Modern Women Artists is made possible by The Johnson Collection.

Year of Women Artists at The Westmoreland
Today, women remain vastly underrepresented in the art world, with studies showing that their work makes up only 13% of major American museum collections. The Year of Women Artists at The Westmoreland brings attention to this imbalance through a dynamic roster of exhibitions and events throughout 2025 centered on American women artists from a variety of backgrounds and eras.

In addition to Our Own Work, Our Own Way, the Museum will present A Fountain of Forms: The Rise of the American Woman Sculptor, 1910–1929 (April 11–December 31, 2025), showcasing bronzes by Harriet Whitney Frishmuth, Malvina Hoffman, and Janet Scudder from the collection of Dr. Michael L. Nieland. These sculptors used representations of the female form to assert their individuality and autonomy in an age of increasing patriarchal control. 

The Museum will also host the following: Pennsylvania in Progress (opening January 18, 2025), including photography by Aaronel deRoy Gruber and works by other women artists; Cecilia Beaux: Inventing the Modern Portrait (opening June 14, 2025), which unpacks Beaux’s path-breaking approach to crafting the modern portrait; The Art of Elizabeth Catlett from the Samella Lewis Collection (September 7, 2025–January 4, 2026), celebrating Catlett’s achievements in sculpture and printmaking; and Brynn Hurlstone: Resonance (opening September 7, 2025), a large-scale immersive installation by Hurlstone.

Additionally, the Museum’s Year of Women Artists will feature a wide range of events designed to foster deeper engagement. For more information about Year of Women Artists exhibitions and events, please visitthewestmoreland.org/yowa.

The Westmoreland’s 2025 exhibition program is generously supported by the Hillman Foundation and The Heinz Endowments. Installations activating the Museum’s permanent collection are supported by Sebastian Mueller Charitable Fund of the Eden Hall Foundation. Support for Cecilia Beaux: Inventing the Modern Portrait is provided by Art Bridges.  Additional support for The Art of Elizabeth Catlett from the Samella Lewis Collection is provided by Arts, Equity, & Education Fund™.

Saturday, February 22 · 1 - 5pm EST. Doors at 12:45pm

Promise Center of Homewood

7825 Hamilton Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15208

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Black History Exhibit and Celebration 

3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Reception 

• Event lasts 4 hours
• ALL AGES
• Free venue parking

Welcome to the Let Freedom Ring: Black History Celebration! Join us at the Promise Center of Homewood for a day filled with music, dance, and more as we celebrate the rich history and culture of the Black community. This in-person event will feature performances by local artists, exhibits, and delicious food from during the Black History Reception. Come together with friends and family to honor and commemorate the achievements and contributions of Black individuals throughout history. Let's celebrate diversity, unity, and freedom at this special event!

Ticket Information Click Here

The year is 1960. A shy, smart 6-year-old named Ruby Bridges becomes the first African American student to attend a formerly whites-only grade school in New Orleans.

Escorted to class by U.S. Marshals through a hostile segregationist mob, the youngster and her family are instantly cast into the national spotlight as symbols of America’s ongoing efforts to ensure equality and justice for all, starting with its public schools.

Bridges’ remarkable journey of resilience and eventual triumph is told in Prime Stage Theatre’s presentation of Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story running for seven shows Jan. 17-26, 2025 at New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, on Pittsburgh’s Northside.

Tickets (adult $39, artist/educator $24, student $19) are available by calling (412) 320-4610 or by reserving online at https://tinyurl.com/mwm432kx.

Directed by Linda Haston, Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story was written in 2021 by Natalia Temesgen, an associate professor of Creative Writing at Columbus State University and a writer/producer for the TV series Reasonable Doubt (Hulu), Julia (HBO Max) and Dear White People (Netflix).

On the play’s opening night (Jan. 18), renowned Louisiana storyteller Robin Kitson shares the impact of her own life-changing childhood encounter with Ruby Bridges.

The 10-member cast includes John Dolphin, Sarah Kobuck, Daniel LaMond, Richard McBride, Eric Molina, Stacia Paglieri, Joylette Portlock, DeVaughn Robinson, Savannah Wiles and Saniya Lavelle as Ruby Bridges.

Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story fits squarely with Prime Stage Theatre’s 2024-2025 season theme of Strength, Voices and Hope, says Prime Stage Theatre artistic director Dr. Wayne Brinda. “People may know the general story of Ruby Bridges,” he notes, “but seeing this pivotal historical moment portrayed onstage shows the true heroism of her actions.”

Prime Stage Theatre • P.O. Box 99446, Pittsburgh, PA 15233 (724) 773-0700 • 

Since its founding in 1996, Prime Stage Theatre has presented over 100 plays that introduce student and family audiences to classic and contemporary works of world literature.

The theatre’s current season includes Great Expectations; Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story; I Never Saw Another Butterfly and The Terezin Promise; Twelve Angry Men.

Prime Stage also presents a series of one-night performances titled Monday Night Specials at New Hazlett:

• Jan. 20 – How I Learned What I Learned. Pittsburgh Actor of the Year Wali Jamal performs playwright August Wilson’s riveting theatrical biography.
• Mar. 3 – Freedom House: Giving Life a Second Chance. A staged reading of a new play by L.E. McCullough on the birth of America’s first EMS units in 1960s Pittsburgh.
• May 5 – Speak. A staged reading of a new Prime Stage Theatre adaptation by Tammy Ryan of Laurie Halse Anderson’s powerful young adult novel presented in partnership with Pittsburgh Action Against Rape.

PHOTO:

l-r) Teacher Mrs. Henry (Stacia Paglieri) greets Ruby Bridges (Saniya Lavelle) and Ruby’s mother Lucille Bridges (Joylette Portlock) on Ruby’s first day of school in Prime Stage Theatre’s production of “Look Forward: The Ruby Bridges Story”. Photo by Laura Slovensko.