James Brandon Lewis & The Messthetics at City of Asylum
Jazz Poetry 2026 with James Brandon Lewis and The Messthetics.
City of Asylum
City of Asylum builds a just community by protecting and celebrating creative free expression.
City of Asylum builds a just community by protecting and celebrating freedom of creative expression.
We provide sanctuary to endangered writers and artists, so that they can continue to create and their voices are not silenced.
We offer a broad range of free literary, arts, and humanities programs in a community setting to build social equity through cultural exchange.
And by transforming blighted properties into homes for our programs, we anchor neighborhood economic development.
Our History
City of Asylum was founded in 2004 by Northside residents Diane Samuels and Henry Reese. Our first writer, Huang Xiang, arrived in Pittsburgh in 2004.
We provide sanctuary to endangered writers and artists, so that they can continue to create and their voices are not silenced.
We offer a broad range of free literary, arts, and humanities programs in a community setting to build social equity through cultural exchange.
And by transforming blighted properties into homes for our programs, we anchor neighborhood economic development.
Our History
City of Asylum was founded in 2004 by Northside residents Diane Samuels and Henry Reese. Our first writer, Huang Xiang, arrived in Pittsburgh in 2004.
Frequently Performs With
Contacts
City of Asylum
contact@cityofasylumpittsburgh.org
Photos
Upcoming Events
Jazz Poetry 2026: Spanish Pianist Marta Sánchez’s “For the Space You Left” & Poems by City of Asylum Writers-in-Residence
Jazz Poetry 2026 welcomes Marta Sánchez for a stunning solo-piano album release, with compositions inspired by themes of isolation and solitude, as well as intimate, improvisational poetry collaborations with four City of Asylum Writers-in-Residence.
