Basic Information for the City of Asylum
Address: 40 W. North Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
Hours: Tours available by appointment. Email contact@cityofasylumpittsburgh.org
Website: http://cityofasylum.org/
Transportation: Bus, car (street parking), bike (no onsite lock site), and walking
Access: Tours only available upon request
About the City of Asylum
The Mexican War Streets show off the Victorian architecture of Pittsburgh’s North Side; the historical homes becom e and less frequent approaching Sampsonia Way. Instead, a home vibrant with beautiful shades of pinks and blues peeks out of the camouflage of Pittsburgh homes. This diamond in the rough is the Jazz House of the City of Asylum.
The City of Asylum is a community of writers, readers, and neighbors who provide sanctuary to their endangered artists. Selected authors from all over the world are offered a home away from persecution, to maintain their right to have their voices heard. Currently, the City of Asylum has five House Publications: Comma House, Jazz House, House Poem, Pittsburgh-Burma House, and Winged House. Additionally, community members and residents are provided opportunities to partake in cross-cultural exchanges with their fellow Pittsburghers.
After hearing Salman Rushdie deliver a moving speech, Henry Reese, a Pittsburgh businessman, and Diane Samuels, a digital artist, felt compelled to join the international community of asylum cities. This network is called ICORN, the International Cities of Refuge Network, an independent organization of cities and regions that offer refuge to writers and artists. Reese and Samuels wrote to and received approval from the European networks to allow them to build a Pittsburgh City of Asylum, rendering Pittsburgh the US headquarters for ICORN. The pair purchased and renovated a house on Sampsonia Way and, in 2004, the Pittsburgh City of Asylum was established.
The first writer who stayed in the house was Huang Xiang and his wife, Zhang Ling. Xiang, a Burmese man imprisoned without trial and regularly subjected to torture, painted the residence with Chinese characters. The building today is known as House Poem. A different artist decorates each house: highly respected jazz saxophonist and composer, Oliver Lake, painted the Jazz House, the Mattress Factory’s Community Art Lab and artists, Laura Jean McLaughlin and Bob Zillar, collaborated in the creation of Winged House based on a passage from Wole Soyinka’s memoir The Man Died, and Pittsburgh-Burma House was created by Khet Mar, the third exiled writer in the City of Asylum residency program. In the fall of November 2021, the new house publication, Comma House, by Tuhin Das, joined Sampsonia Way. Each house represents a different artist’s creativity and is a statement to the world that they are still here and will not be silenced.
Writers from China, El Salvador, Burma, Venezuela, and Iran have lived here. City of Asylum has had over 250 artists in for readings and concerts and has published the works of exiled writers in English translations through their online journal.
Located in an old masonic temple, Alphabet City is a community center of writers, readers, and neighbors in the North Side area of Pittsburgh. The ground floor and basement acts as a bar, restaurant, bookstore, and venue to hold readings, screenings, and concerts. The upper floors has rental apartments of all incomes. Additionally, there is a Garden-to-Garden Trail that starts at Alphabet City and ends at the Alphabet Reading Garden on Monterey Street next to the Mattress Factory.
The City of Asylum commits itself to those who need a place to live, write, think, and breathe. Community is ever-changing, but even in the evolving atmosphere of Pittsburgh, these endangered writers can find solace in the City of Asylum.
The Street of Unveiled Stories
Walking down Sampsonia Way is like strolling through an urban public library and seeing a visual narrative alongside the written word, neighbors’ garage doors, and the stray neighborhood cat. Walking by these expressions of freedom, Sampsonia Way of North Side, Pittsburgh becomes a public library.
Alphabet City: Creating a Cultural Community
Everybody has encountered a time in his/her life in which they had to start over. Many people have to relocate to a new city, leaving behind their neighbors and friends. Others have to change jobs, saying goodbye to their close-knit clan of coworkers. Some people have to move to a new school, leaving behind their well-known teachers, friends, and corridors. No matter what the situation may be, it is never easy. It often leaves people feeling scared and lonely, not knowing where to turn for comfort in the new and confusing place in which they find themselves.
Serendipity and Sanctuary
One afternoon, a man with a calloused right hand and coarse voice gave a talk in Pittsburgh. This man’s name was Salman Rushdie and the Iranian government wanted him dead. Why? Iran wanted him dead because of a novel he wrote, The Satanic Verses. In his novel, Rushdie used magical realism and contemporary events to frame a story around Islam and the prophet Muhammad. The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, believe Rushdie to be a threat to “his” Iran.
“From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable.”
Finding City of Asylum
On the North Side of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 40 W North Avenue rests a seemingly ordinary office building with a red door and glass windows on the first floor. That building is City of Asylum / Alphabet City. City of Asylum (COA) is a grassroots organization that primarily serves as a support system for exiled writers from around the world. Since 2004, founders Diane Samuels and Henry Reese have been hosting endangered writers for two year residencies that include housing, health insurance, English lessons, and legal aid if the writers need it.
Fullblood Arabian: An Exploration of Osama Alomar's Short Stories
As a Western reader, one does not know what to expect when approaching Osama Alomar's Fullblood Arabian. Translated in 2014 from its original Arabic, many of the “very short stories” which appear to be a trademark of Mr. Alomar's writing style carry a consistent tone and thematic similarities across the language gap (Alomar 4). The stories also serve as a window, to tell the reader something about the experiences and worldview of Mr. Alomar, a Syrian writer in exile currently living at City of Asylum ("Osama Alomar").