Strata

Kelly Strayhorn Theater

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Episode Carousel

Joseph Hall, KST's Co-Executive Director, is onstage holding a microphone and lifting one pant leg to show the audience a snakeskin high-heeled boot while. White speech bubbles overlay the photo with the quote "I know we’re doing the work when our events feel dangerous, when it feels like at any point this space could just explode." The NPN logo and the word "Strata" appear in the bottom-left corner and a right arrow in the bottom-right corner.
Graphic poster with a dark blue background and layered colorful oval shapes in orange, pink, blue, and green, intended to look like river rocks. Text reads "Strata" and "Kelly Strayhorn doesn't serve community, but is embedded within community."
Informational graphic with a dark blue background describing Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Text reads "Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) is a home for community dialogue, creative experimentation, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people. KST fosters bold and innovative artistry, welcoming its home to all who uplift Black, Indigenous, people of color, and queer voices, and continues centering historically resilient folks." Additional labels read "Established 2001," "East Liberty neighborhood," and "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." Colorful river rock illustrations are piled up along the bottom.
Quote graphic on a dark blue background with decorative colorful river rocks in the lower corner. Text reads "[KST] was going to be demolished in the early 80s. Folks saved it from demolition. It has seen various iterations of the neighborhood. A neighborhood of a city, of culture, and it still stands with us as a space where I often think of is at once a memory of a neighborhood that was, of a home that was for so many people, and also as what could have been." Attribution reads "Joseph Hall, Co-Executive Director."
Quote graphic with a light blue background and large dark blue abstract shape containing text. Text reads "I recently started describing history as the study of possibility in practice. There’s a resilience in the story. There are these things that happen, and we’re still here, and because this building is still here, we can feel like we are still here." Attribution reads "Sage Crump, NPN."
Graphic with a light gray background featuring layered colorful circles arranged like stacked river rocks viewed from above. Text reads "It’s about holding the complex, holding the nuance. Leaning joyously into a messiness that is intentional and held with care. We like to hold space that..." A small arrow appears in the lower corner.
Graphic with a light gray background featuring layered colorful circles arranged like stacked river rocks viewed from above, each labeled with nested themes. Outer layers read "Environment," "Social Climate," and "Relationships," with inner layers labeled "Body," "Inner Experience," "Self," and center text "Meaning and Spirit." Text below reads "...juxtaposes ideas we often don’t explore together. Resisting this flattening, this binary, this simple story that actually doesn’t reflect the fullness of anyone’s life."
Text graphic with a blue background titled "KST’s Special Sauce." Text reads "A set of practices: 1 Identifying what’s not working, what is working. 2 Space for time (power of time) and deep thought. 3 Collective imagination."
Quote graphic with a blue to teal gradient background and large white abstract shape containing text. Text reads "I think it’s actually a really exciting time. It’s a time of uncertainty for a lot of us, but inside of that, it is an exciting time of making things up, you know, for the next generation, three generations, whatever it, it might be." Attribution reads "Joseph, KST."
Resource graphic with a dark blue panel on a teal background titled "Resilience as Aliveness." Text reads "Four qualities of resilience, inspired by the work of Generative Somatics, that can help us tap into our aliveness." Blue shapes list "Hope and Possibility," "Awe," "Creativity," and "Love." Quote reads "Resilience is our ability to connect and cultivate our innate aliveness." Attribution reads "Alta Starr." Footer text reads "*from Resilience. A Practice Zine by People in Education peopleineducation.org."
Informational graphic with a dark blue background, circular Strata logo at top, and subtitle "a cultural political conversation." Text reads "Designed to deepen our engagement with culture on the road to collective liberation. Through conversations with artists, movement thinkers, cultural workers, administrators, and revolutionaries, we hope to make visible places of intervention and creation that guide our strategies and actions towards a world with humanity and dignity for all."
Closing graphic with a dark blue background featuring NPN DRJaM logos at top and a stack of white river rocks at bottom. Text reads "Strata is a project of the National Performance Network’s Department of Racial Justice and Movement Building (DRJaM). Learn more at: npnweb.org/strata."
1 / 1

View this carousel on Instagram

Kelly Strayhorn Theater

About this Episode

Strata – Kelly Strayhorn Theater (@kstheater) is a multidisciplinary performing arts center rooted in the East Liberty and Homewood neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In this episode of Strata, Kelly Strayhorn’s Co-Executive Director, Joseph Hall, talks to us about the theater’s history and mission, Black Feminist praxis through bell hooks’ concept of homeplace, and the ongoing practice of resistance and liberation in cultural work.

“I know we’re doing the work when our events feel dangerous, when it feels like at any point this space could just explode.”

Strata, a cultural political conversation from NPN, explores the role of cultural work on our journey to collective liberation. Through conversations with cultural workers, artists, and movement thinkers, Strata reveals how cultural organizations are engaging the political life of their communities and beyond through exploring the layers of ideas and praxis that guide us toward a world with humanity and dignity for all.

This conversation was recorded in 2024. Kelly Strayhorn Theater is an NPN National Partner (view their profile).

Resources

Credits

Artists works by Anya Collins, Jesse Factor, Meg Foley, Jasmine Hearn, Najimeh Njie, and Arnita Simone.

Photos by Beth Barbis, Randall Coleman,  Delaney Greenberg, Chad Isaiah, and Mark Simpson.

Video footage by Bright Archives.

Courtesy of the artists and Kelly Strayhorn Theater.

Design and production by Big Tada.

NPN DRJaM

Strata is a project of the National Performance Network’s Department of Racial Justice and Movement Building (DRJaM).

Episodes

Strata Overview

Kelly Strayhorn Theater

Joseph Hall, Co-Executive Director of Kelly Strayhorn Theater, on stage showing off his high-heel boots to the audience, lifting one foot with a grin while holding a microphone. He wears a sheer black top and cream-colored wide-leg pants. Guitars rest on stands near a drum kit behind him, lit by dramatic magenta and deep blue stage lighting.

DiverseWorks

A performer on stage moves through a large bundle of tall dried grasses and seed heads, hands reaching into the stalks. A projection of dense green foliage fills the backdrop, creating a layered contrast between the warm brown grasses and the cool, lush green behind them.

Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI)

Two figures in a lush green field with tall grass and tropical forest behind them. One, covered entirely in blue body paint, sits crouching with hands pressed together near their face. The other, covered in white or gray body paint, stands with a large banana leaf draped over their head and shoulders, one arm extended. Both appear to be part of a land-based performance.