The Wurster Interviews, Part 12: The Less Early But Still Early Years of PPE

Read previous installments:     Part 1     Part 2     Part 3     Part 4     Part 5      Part 6      Part 7      Part 8      Part 9      Part 10      Part 11

THE SOUTH SIDE, continued

So you remember that I moved to the South Side in 1982 to the apartment on Bedford Square that I now occupy. One day in August of ‘83, I came down the stairs through the gate onto the sidewalk. There were Al Bierman and Keith Attwood. They looked at me like two wolves who had just had an idea. Here’s what happened.

SACA (South Side Arts Crafts and Antiques) had decided to have a fall arts and crafts festival. Antique dealers, craft booths, food vendors — but they had forgotten about entertainment. Not only did they not have any entertainment lined up, but they had no budget for entertainment.

Since I had experience producing events, they implored me to book a slate of entertainment for this festival: Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday afternoon. The performers, of course, would have to perform for free, since there was no entertainment budget.

Well, I managed to do this. I got my upstairs neighbor who had a rock ‘n roll band to play several shows for free. I found a man and a woman who liked to perform at old age hospitals — he played piano and she sang. I got Mr. Kim, the martial arts master from Brentwood — this was especially wonderful — it was amazing how he worked with the young children. And this little pint-sized boy actually threw Mr. Kim! Mr. Kim was a big man.

Also, I had several poetry readings: Nancy Gavrilas, I read, and several others. All of this occurred on the big stage in the parklet at 12th and Carson. I did this again in 1984.

Now at the time, there were two festivals. SACA’s was in September, and Community Council’s was in July. In Community Council’s festival, the Catholic churches on the South Side were involved. (At the time there were a lot of them; now they’re sort of folded into one church.)

Now the city of Pittsburgh provides financial support to community festivals, but by law, they’re only permitted to support one festival per neighborhood per year. So after the first two years of our festivals, the city came to us and said they wouldn’t support two festivals; we’d have to combine. We came together under the rubric of the South Side Development Co.; Community Council and SACA both remained involved. The festival became the South Side Summer Street Spectacular. A carnival became part of the festival. That gave it a really festive atmosphere.

I continued to produce the poetry readings, which moved from outdoors to indoors at the South Side public library, and to be the entertainment coordinator. I did a really good job of booking the entertainment, but there were elements that wanted more rock ‘n roll and less jazz. So I was asked to give up the entertainment job and become the volunteer coordinator — which meant finding volunteers as well as coordinating them.

This is going to sound like bragging, but I did a great job as volunteer coordinator. Many poets and welfare workers found themselves selling carnival ride tickets and helping out in other ways as well.

After some years, the poetry reading was moved from the library to Club Café, which permitted me to add a jazz concert to the poetry reading. Two of the jazz groups involved — one was a quintet led by Mark Perna, the bassist. Another was the singer Marva Josie and her trio.

The festival relied on sponsorships. The poetry readings were sponsored by the accountant David Oster. After we moved to Club Café and added jazz, local FM radio station WDUQ became a co-sponsor. The festival became more successful every year. Unfortunately, it became more of a beer festival, which became crazier and rowdier every year and was eventually discontinued, having served its purpose.

 

Next in issue 16: Carson Street Gallery and City Books