The Tartan

Local Pittsburgh happenings in arts, culture, etc.

1. Pittsburgh Japanese Film Festival

• March 14–27, Row House Cinema, Lawrenceville, ticket price varies
• Eat ice cream mochi at “Ice Cream Fever” (March 23, 12:40 p.m., $16) and visit the Gari Shoyu Sando Company Pop Up outside the theater (March 17 and 20 1–7 p.m.). Those are two standouts because… food… but there are a few other special events throughout the film festival. Row House Cinema does weekly themes, but this 16-film annual festival is worth checking out!

2. Pittsburgh Fringe Festival

• March 20–29, location and price vary
• Fringe festivals feature small-scale, independent, unconventional performances — performances that are on “the fringe” of performance culture. Pittsburgh’s own Fringe is in its 12th year and includes dozens of (often free) performances.

3. Play — Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

• March 19–April 6, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, student tickets available
• Edward Albee’s title combines the song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” from Disney’s 1933 “The Three Little Pigs” with modernist author Virginia Woolf’s name, while the play itself highlights the complexities of marriage. 

4. Popular Music — Agape Trio

• March 25, 7:30 p.m., $25 cash
• In town from Detroit, the Agape Trio is a jazz group composed of saxophonist Alex Harding, bassist Joel Peterson, and percussionist David Hurley. Audiences can enjoy their improvisational jazz over tea at Bantha Tea Room. 

5. Art Exhibit — When the Lights Come On: Queer Nightlife as Emergent Space, Curated by Hannah Turpin

• Jan. 23–March 22, Brew House Arts
• Last chance to catch this 12-artist, multimedia artistic reflection on queer nightlife. Support small art exhibits!

6. Lecture — World Literature: Yoko Tawada “Suggested in the Stars”

• March 23, 3–4 p.m., City of Asylum
• Japanese German author Yoko Tawada is a former writer-in-residence at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. Her lecture and reading of her new novel are part of City of Asylum’s series “World Literature,” which is always worth checking out. 

7. Art Exhibit — Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden

• Opening March 21, Carnegie Museum of Art, free
• This exhibit marks the first survey exhibition at a major American museum for Raymond Saunders, born in Pittsburgh in 1934. He often parallels the theme of the Black experience in America with depicting a literal blackboard in his mixed-media paintings.  

8. Opera — Madama Butterfly

• March 22–30, Pittsburgh Opera
• This Puccini opera features the story of Cio-Cio-San’s abandonment by a U.S. officer named Pinkerton in Nagasaki against an accordingly tragic score. 

9. Workshop — Rooted in Community: Backyard Garden Forum

• March 22, 10 a.m.–3 p.m., $25 student tickets
• This forum includes seven more specific workshops by experts to get you ready for gardening season.