UPDATE as of March 13:  The PPC will be sensitive to requests from epidemiologists to minimize public gathering by postponing Liner Notes: Steven Universe Soundtrack at this time.  Our community aspires to provide social support in a time of elevated anxiety as well as a familiar physical space for people unsettled by rapidly evolving local health policies, ever changing schedules, information overload, and financial instability. 

After the careful consideration of their leadership, City of Asylum has decided to cancel events for the rest of March.  It will take some time to see what this will mean for their programming schedule moving forward and the availability of space to reschedule the Steel City Grand Slam.

We are looking at technical options available to replace the March 24 workshop with a virtual reading or hangout during which we can all share our work and be together while maintaining social distancing. Please contact us if you have suggestions.

We will continue to communicate all changes here and on our Facebook pages.

For folks who are still comfortable gathering, we make the following recommendations for going out and about based on information released by the CDC:

• Please do not attend our or anyone’s events if you have a fever or cough, or have been exposed to respiratory droplets from someone with these symptoms in the past two weeks.
• Your fragrance-free hand sanitizer and your properly fitted mask are welcome in our spaces.  Remember, masks are primarily recommended for sick people and healthcare providers.
• As always, respect personal space and practice good hand hygiene.

Remember that service staff are going to bear the brunt of event cancellations in circumstances where the venue is not closed, and they are likely to not have paid time off or adequate medical coverage.  If you are out and you are able, please be generous.

Signal boost for this resource for freelance artists during COVID-19

The Pittsburgh Poetry Collective leadership is watching the COVID-19 “coronavirus” pandemic with you.  As of this writing, there are no confirmed cases in western PA or WV. We are using this map based on Johns Hopkins research.  We understand that there are immunocompromised people in our community.  As ever, we believe that you are best equipped to take care of yourself how you need to, and we support you in it.  Over the coming weeks, we recommend that folx attending our events consider elbow or fist bumps rather than high fives, handshakes, or hugs.  We’re going to wash our hands a lot and try not to touch our faces and we’re not going to hoard masks or hand sanitizer or toilet paper. Because we are reasonable.

The Pittsburgh Poetry Collective leadership is watching the COVID-19 “coronavirus” pandemic with you.  As of this writing, there are no confirmed cases in western PA or WV. We are using this map based on Johns Hopkins research.  We understand that there are immunocompromised people in our community.  As ever, we believe that you are best equipped to take care of yourself how you need to, and we support you in it.  Over the coming weeks, we recommend that folx attending our events consider elbow or fist bumps rather than high fives, handshakes, or hugs.  We’re going to wash our hands a lot and try not to touch our faces and we’re not going to hoard masks or hand sanitizer or toilet paper. Because we are reasonable.

We are moving forward with our scheduled events, including the March 29 Steel City Grand Slam.  This may change based on the choices of our venue partners.  We will update information as needed here and in our event listings.  Thank you for your understanding.

COVID-19 information: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html