Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism

04/09/2024

PINJ will not be undertaking new work. We believe it is important that the work done here continues to be available to readers and our website with all of our stories will remain live. We hope that this reporting can be relied on by other reporters and citizens as they pick up the torch.

We are incredibly proud of the work that our fierce little team has been able to produce these past years. We wrote stories we never expected to write. We hit unexpected roadblocks. We went to court to get information — and won. We talked to all kinds of people from Pulitzer Prize winning writers to everyday people who do hard work on the ground in Pittsburgh to address long-time inequities and make the region a healthier and more vibrant place.

We made connections which both enriched our reporting and motivated us to do better work.

https://pinjnews.org/pinj-news-closing-thank-you-pittsburgh/

28/05/2024

Raymond Thompson’s “Appalachian Ghost” Is a Photographic Excavation of America’s Deadliest Industrial Disaster.

When Raymond Thompson, Jr. started looking through the archives of the Hawks Nest tunnel, he was struck by how absent the five thousand plus men who worked the dig were. It was, rather, a celebration of the engineering feat and the important men involved. Thompson’s new book, “Appalachian Ghost: A Photographic Reimagining of the Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster ” (University Press of Kentucky, 2024,) is a photography collection that provides a necessary corrective while doing some heavy archival lifting.

By focusing the workers through his own craft and virtuosity, Thompson has created a beautiful record that is lamentation and resistance, history and hymn.

Full story in link below

03/05/2024

I am so thrilled to announce that Shawn has been nominated for Best Feature by the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation. Read his essay about juvenile detention in Pittsburgh.

This is by far our favorite piece published last year.

Sean Johnson Editors Note: Sean Johnson was of the last cohort to be housed at the now shuttered Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in 2021. He writes that the education programming in the facility and a diverse library are the two most essential needs for child rehabilitation and learning. This is th...

31/03/2024

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 common, racist criminal justice script of the era. He was portrayed by the police and the media as a brute who was calculating but also impulsive, and who took advantage of Elsie Barthel, an attractive, vulnerable white woman.

The police secured a confession to the murder after a lengthy interrogation, but neither of Barthel’s two white boyfriends — the father of the child she was carrying, nor her fiancé, who was at the scene of the crime that night — were ever seriously considered.

From the first indication that Savage had any contact with Barthel, he was the only suspect. He was tried and convicted within six weeks of Barthel’s death. He was executed just four months later. Savage left behind a family, his wife Regina and his four year-old son, William.

After reassembling and reviewing the available record of the case — the trial transcript, the surviving legal record, and newspaper coverage, and finding any available information on the principal parties — this is an effort to reconstruct the murder of Elsie Barthel, the all-too-brief investigation of the crime, and the conviction and ex*****on of Lorenzo Savage.

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 common, racist criminal justice script of the era. He was portrayed by the police and the media as a b...

26/02/2024

Don't miss this three part series. We are so proud to publish this.

The following are correspondence between Michael Bennett and Denzel Glover, a young man who is incarcerated. Bennett and Glover met when Bennett was teaching creative writing in the Allegheny County Jail. Glover was a juvenile at the time, housed at the ACJ. They have maintained correspondence now that Glover is an adult.

Many incarcerated people report that being unable to help and lend emotional support to friends and family contributed to feelings of deep isolation. This disconnection from community is one of the most difficult aspects of life for them.

by Michael Bennett and Denzel Glover Editor’s Note: This is part of our series exploring the juvenile justice landscape in Pittsburgh with a focus on education and mental health. These stories were funded by Staunton Farm Foundation and The Grable Foundation. You can read other essays from inside ...

14/02/2024

In 2002, the gay community had seen enough death — everybody knew somebody who died during the height of the AIDS crisis and Jamie herself raised money tirelessly for HIV and AIDS research. But a death like Jamie’s? It was impossible to reorient in a world where such a horrible death was possible.

The case remains unsolved to this day, and in the 22 years since Jamie’s death, I’ve hoped for resolution or, at least, a fresh investigation. A podcasting team has been digging in, hoping to move the case forward and maybe find some answers. This week “The Girl with the Same Name” podcast will air its first episode investigating Jamie Stickle’s death.
Read more about it here:

Jody DiPerna I don't remember who called to tell me, in February of 2002, that Jamie Stickle was dead, that she had been killed, but I do remember that the ground underfoot felt off-kilter. Much of the LGBTQ community couldn't get our balance without her, and the death of this huge presence in gay P...

14/01/2024

New at PINJ today, Mara Rago talks about her first film, "Carla" a documentary about her friend Carla Beck.

'Rago met Carla Beck in the late nineties, after seeing her ride around Shadyside on a sleek scooter, looking like a rockstar with her big hair and leather jacket. After kindling a friendship for a few years, Rago approached Beck in 2001 with an idea for a documentary about her life. That’s how we meet Carla Beck — tooling around town, discussing her love for music, for classical literature, and for Pammy, her partner at the time.

'Framed in the middle of shot with her guitar tuning pegs under her fingertips, she says: “If gender wasn’t such a constricted thing, I would not have gone through life like a buzz saw.”'

Rachel Rinehart The film remains a work in progress, but the archival documentary stands as a testament to the filmmaker's friend, Carla Beck. (spoilers ahead for the film) At the beginning of Mara Rago’s film, "Carla," a message in bold, slabbed text reads, “all efforts have been made to restor...

05/12/2023

By Jody DiPerna Barbara Kingsolver lives where she set her novel, “Demon Copperhead,” on the Virginia side of the map where the state lines of Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia form an outline that mimics Pittsburgh’s rivers. She grew up just across the state line in eastern Kentucky and, t...

03/12/2023

Allegheny county has begun paying Adelphoi for the cost of beds per diem at Shuman Juvenile Detention Center.

Approximately $850,000 will go to the nonprofit by Dec 31 despite that there are no children at the facility and the nonprofit hasn’t applied for licensure.

Nonprofit operator receives $7,800 daily payments before children are housed at the former Shuman facility, as Allegheny County pays for renovation costs. Brittany Hailer and Brian Conway This story is a collaboration between Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, Pittsburgh Independent and....