3/29 The Bridge Series w/ Carter-Jones, Flick, Walker, & NAMSC @ Brillobox

8PM WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29…

The Bridge Series unites the Pittsburgh literary and activist communities to raise awareness and funds for local organizations fighting the good fight in these troubling times.

The series convenes the last Wednesday of each month at The Brillobox. Each installment will feature Pittsburgh’s finest writers and a special guest organization (with proceeds from the evening going directly to that organization).

Plus every evening will end with a short Open Mic segment!

Tonight will feature readings from:

Sheila Carter-Jones – Sheila L. Carter-Jones taught in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, and in Chatham University’s and the University of Pittsburgh’s Education Departments. She earned her BA from Carnegie Mellon University and both an M.Ed. and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. She is a fellow of Cave Canem, Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop and a Walter Dakins Fellow of the 2015 Sewanee Writer’s Conference. Her poetry has been published in Crossing Limits, Pittsburgh Quarterly, Pennsylvania Review, Tri-State Anthology, Riverspeak, Flights: The Literary Journal of Sinclair College, Coal: A Poetry Anthology, City Paper, Cave Canem Anthology, Jewish Currents and Voices from the Attic. She has a chapbook entitled Blackberry Cobbler Song and her manuscript Three Birds Deep was selected by Elizabeth Alexander as the 2012 winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Book Award. Her recent chapbook Crooked Star Dream Book was named runner-up for the 2013 New York Center for Book Arts Chapbook Contest. Currently, Sheila is working on a new manuscript of poems tentatively entitled The Newly Invented Lucky Star Dream Book and a memoir yet to be titled.

Sherrie Flick – Sherrie Flick is author of the novel Reconsidering Happiness, the flash fiction chapbook I Call This Flirting, and her latest short story collection Whiskey, Etc. (Queen’s Ferry Press, 2016). She teaches in the MFA and Food Studies programs at Chatham University, is the Co-Director of Chautauqua Writers’ Festival, and serves as Fiction Editor for Burnside Review.

Marcel Lamont Walker – Marcel Lamont (M.L.) Walker is a lifelong resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and graduate of The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He works as a freelance illustrator, graphic designer, comic-book creator, writer, photographer, and art instructor.

For several years he taught comic-book creation classes, workshops and camps for children and adults at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. He continues to instruct at Pittsburgh’s ToonSeum, The Museum of Cartoon Art, where he is also a member of their Board of Directors.

Walker is the lead artist, book designer, and project coordinator for CHUTZ-POW! SUPERHEROES OF THE HOLOCAUST, an ongoing anthology comic-book produced by The Holocaust Center of Greater Pittsburgh. He was also the featured artist in COMIC-TANIUM! THE SUPER MATERIALS OF THE SUPERHEROES, a sciences-and-art exhibit sponsored by The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society that toured nationally in 2015. As the creator, artist and writer of the independent comic-book HERO CORP., INTERNATIONAL, he has recast his friends and associates in a world of corporate American superheroes.

In 2016, he was the recipient of a grant from the Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Program courtesy of The Pittsburgh Foundation and The Heinz Endowments. He also received an Artists Opportunity Grant from The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council for his first ever solo art exhibition, To Tell The Troof.

Our guest organization tonight is NAMSC, and Amy Conroy will be onhand to discuss its mission.

As the largest resettlement program in Pittsburgh, NAMSC successfully resettles and provides new refugees with the basic services and support they need to rebuild their lives. Prior to a family’s arrival, our Reception and Placement team identifies safe and affordable housing and provides essential furnishings and household items to make families feel welcome. Upon arrival, we meet families at the airport, provide an in-depth cultural orientation, connect them to medical services, and assist with applications for social security cards and DHS benefits. We also help to register children for school and connect adults to ESL classes.

NAMSC also offers several employment programs that provide continued support for refugees for up to five years. Services offered include job search, professional and educational skills development, and access to ongoing workshops with NAMSC staff and community volunteers.

Through these initiatives, we are able to guide refugees to independence and put them on the path toward self sufficiency as they begin their new lives here in Pittsburgh. You can find out more here – http://buildingindependence.org/nams/community-assistance-and-refugee-resettlement/