Enjoy a Soulful Taste of the Burgh, celebrate the life of Mac Miller or check out an exhibit of the East End's Louise Silk and her handmade quilts — here's what to do in Pittsburgh this weekend.
Comedy
Choir Consequences returns to Arcade Comedy Theatre for an evening of musical improv. The Pittsburgh-based troupe specializes in Broadway-style shows, each night creating a two-act comedic narrative, complete with characters and songs, all improvised on the spot. The show is Thu., Aug. 29.
Festival
A Soulful Taste of the Burgh, the Pittsburgh soul-food festival, returns Labor Day weekend for its fifth year. More than 100 food and arts vendors, live music and more will fill Downtown’s Market Square, the Boulevard of the Allies and adjoining streets for three days. Highlights include live jazz, soul, R&B and hip hop by local and touring acts, as well as Saturday’s BBQ and mac-and-cheese competition. The festival runs Fri., Aug. 30, through Sun., Sept. 1.
Remembrance
Here in the late Mac Miller’s hometown, fans gather annually to mark his untimely death, in 2018. This year’s Celebration of Mac Miller, at South Side’s Velum Fermentation, begins Fri., Aug. 30, with Colors and Shapes, an all-ages event featuring art, DJs and refreshments. A 21-and-over event featuring Iron City Circus follows Saturday, while Sunday’s Spit Bars includes an artist showcase and free barbecue. An informal gathering follows that evening at the iconic Blue Slide Park.
Visual Art
Louise Silk was born in Pittsburgh’s East End in 1950, and began quilting after reading about it in Ms. Magazine. Five decades’ worth of her handmade quilts form the core of “Louise Silk: A Patchwork Life,” an exhibit opening Sun., Sept. 1, at the Heinz History Center. The show explores how Silk has used quilting to explore her Jewish identity, and includes an in-gallery, interactive community project to create a huge new quilt.
Film
“Beauty can be born of anguish and destruction,” writes guest curator Astria Suparak of the Sat., Aug. 31, installment of the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Annual Film Series. The afternoon program “A Spell Against Amnesia” includes “We Are In Hell When We Hurt Each Other,” an immersive virtual-reality video by Jacolby Satterwhite; a 1973 work by new-media and video-art pioneer Peter Campus; and “The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon,” Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s 60-minute drama about a Vietnamese mother and daughter who run a junkyard in an area heavily bombed during the war.
Music
Two-time Tony winner Michael Cerveris joins an all-star lineup of local rockers for An Evening of David Bowie at this year’s Allegheny County Music Festival, at Hartwood Acres. The band features members of The Clarks, The Affordable Floors and more. Local bands Valleyview and Sweat open the show, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Sun., Sept. 1. The suggested donation of $20 per car benefits children and youth receiving services through the county.
