Free Concerts @ City of Asylum

Pittsburgh Jazz legend Roger Humphries + writers from across the globe!

Fans of Thursday Night Jazz rejoice: legendary Pittsburgh drummer Roger Humphries and RH Factor return to City of Asylum to join in the 20 year anniversary of Jazz Poetry. Our Tuesday night poets feature City of Asylum writer-in-residence and prolific Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Rafeyenko in his Jazz Poetry debut, winner of the University of Pittsburgh Press’s Donald Hall Prize for Poetry Sahar Muradi, sharing work from her recently published collection Octobers, recipient of The Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging Writers Xan Forest Phillips, and Mónica de la Torre, Mexican poet and winner of the 2022 Foundation for Contemporary Arts C.D. Wright Award for Poetry.

Each Jazz Poetry program begins with a 40-minute performance by the band, followed by 30 minutes of collaborative performance with the featured poets. In these collaborations, poets share their work while the musicians interpret and accompany their poetry with jazz, adding a unique, improvisational dimension to each performance.

Don't miss the grand finale of Jazz Poetry 2024!

For the final performance of Jazz Poetry 2024, the tradition of international collaboration and cross-cultural exchange is embraced by saxophonist Alex Harding and Transylvanian expat pianist Lucian Ban. The pair will make their return to City of Asylum with their quintet to share their latest project, Blutopia. They are joined by City of Asylum writer-in-residence Jorge Olivera Castillo, Vietnamese American poet and author of the explorative poetry collection Auction, Quan Barry, Cave Canem Fellow Quincy Scott Jones, and British-Guyanese poet Rajiv Mohabir, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award who will make his long anticipated return to the Alphabet City stage.

Each Jazz Poetry program begins with a 40-minute performance by the band, followed by 30 minutes of collaborative performance with the featured poets. In these collaborations, poets share their work while the musicians interpret and accompany their poetry with jazz, adding a unique, improvisational dimension to each performance.