Officials, community leaders and advocates gathered downtown Monday to renew a commitment to protecting human rights on the 70th anniversary of Human Rights Day. But what does that commitment mean in a practical sense?
Mariana Padias and Jessie Ramey both work in that space. Padias, chair of the city's Commission on Human Relations, says it’s important to actively look for inequity and opportunities to address it.
Ramey, chair of the city's Gender Equity Commission, says intersectionality is central to that work.
“If you don’t want to see displacement in the community, it’s very easy not to,” Padias said.
Elsewhere in the program, the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s production of The Nutcracker is a time-honored holiday tradition for many, but can it also help create an enduring love for the arts?
Christina Salgado, director of education for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, hopes so. This year, the theatre has sold nearly 16,000 tickets to more than 4,000 new households. She explores how the production has introduced ballet to new generations for years, welcoming thousands of new and returning patrons to more than two dozen shows every year.
Shade, a versatile conversational tool long-used by African-American women and gay men, has spread into the mainstream culture thanks in part to reality TV. WESA’s Bill O’Driscoll reports that artist Rashaad Newsome has seen a disturbing outcome: White people who casually throw shade also stereotype black people who do the same as “ghetto.” He takes a look at Newsome’s “Shade Compositions.”
And although the 2018 midterm elections brought big wins to Democrats nationally, in Pennsylvania, the party saw more modest gains at the state legislature. WESA’s Chris Potter reports on a story of two Senate districts that show how Democrats got a majority of votes across the state but remain the minority in both the state House and the Senate.
The Confluence, where the news comes together, is 90.5 WESA’s daily news program. Tune in weekdays at 9 a.m. to hear newsmakers and innovators join veteran journalist Kevin Gavin, taking an in-depth look at stories important to the Pittsburgh region. Find more episodes of The Confluence here.
