The Wurster Interviews, Part 2: The Early Years of PPE

Original Members, Expansion, and Lion Walk

There were four founders of Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange besides me — all brilliant poets.

I knew Lloyd Johnson from around Shadyside. He was a friend of both my first and second wives. Vic Coccimiglio and J.W. Jansen came with us from the North Hills poetry workshop we'd attended previously.

I met Dieter while my second wife and I were managing a coffeehouse at the Lutheran University Center in Oakland. Suzy handled the kitchen; I booked entertainment. Dieter posted notices that he was looking for poets. These were 3 x 5 cards in laundromats and other public places.

We had a workshop at my house and were in constant touch. One poet would write a poem in the middle of the night and come knock on the door of another.

By this time I had begun working as a caseworker for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. We attended readings at the International Poetry Forum. Being confronted by great poets such as W.H. Auden and Elizabeth Bishop was an inspiration to us. Our group started looking for other poets.

Among the first poets we discovered were Dick Duronio (deceased) and Nancy Gavrilas. Dick enjoyed drugs and whisky and taught us to eat Chinese food. In his chapbook he had a poem with these lines: "Eat Chinese food/at Hong Fat's in New York." Nancy taught literature, writing, and poetry at CCAC Boyce Campus. She suffered from post-polio syndrome and used crutches.

Trudy Scott also taught at Boyce Campus, and Anne Wyma taught at CCAC South Campus. Trudy and Anne had the Pennsylvania Repertory Theater. They rented the first floor of a building on Bigelow Boulevard near Baum. They turned it into Lion Walk Performing Arts Center. The building was owned by Janet Gillespie, who ran a dance company called Janet Gillespie and Present Company on the second floor. Janet also taught dance classes there.

Trudy and Anne named the place in reference to an amusement park, Luna Park, that once stood in that part of North Oakland. One day a lion got loose and mauled a woman at the park. A police officer saved her by shooting and killing the lion from atop the bandstand. Trudy and Anne wanted to host concerts, show experimental films, host exhibits in the art gallery.

They showcased a lot of female avant garde artists. One of these was Carol Schneeman, who showed her film "More Than Meat Joy" and talked about her life. Her exhibit at the gallery also included installation art and a performance piece.

Trudy and Anne were thrilled about having a poetry component at Lion Walk. We began hosting our workshop in their space and had our first open workshops there.

A theater company from New York State completed a residency at Lion Walk and went home, but one of their hangers-on decided to stay on for a while. She was a young French woman who couldn't speak English very well. She sat in on one of our workshops. In one of my poems I had a line, "Catch the bus, catch the bus" — and she went nuts: carried on, laughed. She thought it was hilarious.

LeAnn Bartok Wilchusky had an opening at Lion Walk that consisted of her art and a showing of her film. She made the film with an NEA grant. To make the film, she rented a plane. Out in the country somewhere, she filmed the plane releasing skydivers and colored banners. It was beautiful. Senator William Proxmire later gave her the Golden Fleece Award for most ridiculous expenditure of public funds. LeAnn's mother had died recently, so it was poor timing.

Steve Pellegrino had choreographed a dance for 2,000 wheelchairs at the University of Maryland. The wheelchair dancers were divided into four groups, each wearing a different color of clothing. He filmed it from the air. Steve returned to Pittsburgh and performed the original version of his piece "Drywall" at Lion Walk. In the beginning, it consisted of him putting up drywall and talking to the audience. He has continued doing it over the years and it gets bigger and bigger. In later years, the piece became more elaborate. A few years ago I saw it at the Hazlett Theater, and it took up nearly the entire space. He had dancers, musicians, etc.

Dieter was interested in poetic theater and got involved with the theater company. He wrote and performed in an original play in which he was a ritual sacrifice. At one point in the play, Rose Gladys, Trudy, and Anne went over to the wall and changed clothes — and there we were — nudity.

It was a time of artistic ferment in Pittsburgh. Nineteen seventy-four, the same year Lion Walk opened, also saw the founding of Pittsburgh Filmmakers and the WYEP community radio station. Back then, WYEP was located in a basement with a roof that leaked — if you can imagine that. I did poetry and jazz shows on WYEP with Lloyd and with Alan Bargebuhr.

Next in Uppagus issue 5: More highlights from the early years