Bill Lofquist and Jody DiPerna In the fall of 1923, a young woman from Pittsburgh's East End was murdered. The police built a case against Lorenzo Savage, a young Black man, that closely followed a…
The Short-Stories in Jolene McIlwain’s New Collection, ‘Sidle…
by Jody DiPerna Kittanning author's new story collection simmers with country community, pain and perseverance Jolene McIlwain was an outside kid; she was always out of doors, getting dirty and wet in the high grass,…
‘Mighty Harlan County,’ film about the Blackjewel miners,…
by Jody DiPerna On May 11, the Battle of Homestead will show the film 'Mighty Harlan County,' followed by a conversation with film director Jared Hamilton moderated by the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. UPDATE: …
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s Novel, “Chain-Gang All-Stars” Is Singular…
by Jody DiPerna From the first page of his brilliant novel, "Chain-Gang All-Stars," Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah brings the reader into a prison system of the future based entirely on history to lay bare harrowing truths…
“The Songs of Betty Baach” Is a Modern…
by Jody DiPerna Glenn Taylor's home state of West Virginia inspires his fiction. He tells stories of the resilience, struggle and joy of working people. There are labor battles, timbering, and coal mining; there is…
Criminal Solution: Competency Hearings Explainer and Timeline of…
A Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and Spotlight PA Special Investigation By Brittany Hailer and Danielle Ohl Photos by Nate Smallwood Determining whether someone is mentally fit to stand trial in Pennsylvania often traps them in the…
Interview with Sylvia Ryerson, the Filmmaker behind the…
by Jody DiPerna Sylvia Ryerson is a fifth year PhD candidate in American Studies at Yale. Before graduate school, she worked for nine years as a DJ and radio journalist for WMMT fm in Whitesburg,…
New Book “This Is My Jail” Digs Deep…
by Jody DiPerna Melanie Newport is an historian who teaches urban history and criminal justice history at the University of Connecticut at Hartford. Her book, "This Is My Jail: Local Politics and the Rise of…
Exiles Living in a Church
By Kristin Kovacic, Belt Magazine It certainly isn’t cool, or edgy, or funny–the things people say about what it must be like to live in a church. It’s relentless. . . . Blessed are they…