Darlene Moore has lived in the Hill District for 60 of her 67 years. When she raised her children there, she said it was a very wealthy community. But then it disintegrated, and it became a struggle to live there. She and her friends had to travel for their everyday needs, such as day care. So family and friends supported each other.
Davonna Shannon’s entire family, including her maternal and paternal grandparents, lived on Whiteside Road in the same community. She has fond memories of her life there as a young girl who loved hearing her grandparents’ stories of going to the movies, skating and parties at the New Granada Theater. Those stories and more have been told again and again at the reunions the neighborhood families tell when they gather together.
Sheila Carney grew up in a house on Ellers Street that her grandfather built in West Oakland. A Sister of Mercy, she watched the demolition that tore down part of the Hill District to make way for the Civic Arena, something that radically and negatively changed the neighborhood. Residents, though, have lived through that and have been working hard to continue to make it a vibrant community, she said.
The three women’s recollections are among the 41 recorded by 48 teens in the “Women of the Mercy Corridor,” an oral history project completed in summer 2024 as part an ongoing partnership between the “Saturday Light Brigade public radio program and McAuley Ministries. All involved will gather for a celebration Thursday of the work at the Jeron X. Grayson Community Center.
Other partners in the project in addition to McAuley and the Grayson Community Center are the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Hill District Branch and the University of Pittsburgh Hill District Community Engagement Center.
Last year’s effort is a part two for “SLB,” which has been broadcasting since 1978, and the partnership. “SLB” piloted the project in fall 2017 when 25 women who live or work in the Hill District, Uptown and Oakland neighborhoods of Pittsburgh recorded interviews led by 29 girls ages 11 to 17 who live in those same neighborhoods, according to a news release. In 2019 “SLB” published a booklet and CD, called “Girl Talk Vol. 1,” of that work.
“SLB” is a nonprofit that “uses radio and audio to amplify voices of youth — and members of other communities whose stories are often marginalized — to educate, empower and build community,” according to its website. “We believe that all people have the capacity to develop authentic voices and know that their voices matter — that they matter — and that their voices can be used for self-expression, inquiry and change.”
McAuley Ministries Foundation gave “SLB” $90,000 in 2022 for this second effort. Delayed somewhat by the pandemic, the original conclusion date had set for 2023, Executive Director Marisol Valentin said, but it had to be extended.
The partnership fit McAuley’s strategic planning it worked on during COVID-19. “One element – that we related to the four chambers of the heart – was celebrating our communities,” she said. “As I am listening to the stories, too, it’s just a way to celebrate the strength in our communities that doesn’t get recognized publicly. We are just enjoying it so much.”
Named in honor of Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, McAuley Ministries is the grant-making foundation of Pittsburgh Mercy. “Our vision is to be a good neighbor whose support has contributed to neighborhoods that are safe, vibrant and celebrated, and where residents are healthy and enabled to reach their full potential,” it states on its website.
“SLB” started recording similar oral histories about 15 years ago, Executive Director Larry Berger said. His staff trains young people to talk to adults about their lives prior to the recordings, and he has been pleased with the success from the efforts.
“The youth ask incredible questions,” Berger said. “The adults end up really opening up. It’s like the youth are muses for the adults and their stories. They tell the stories to fresh ears [in a way] that hasn’t happened before. Adults, because they’re talking to younger people, they go out of their way to be explicit and to explain things in a very understandable way.”
He and “SLB” Manager of Special Projects Ben Rutkowski recalled that the oral histories began with about 200 men from 2010-15 in a Crossing Fences project. The next logical step: Do the same with women, and McAuley Ministries helped with the funding for it.
Part one of “Girl Talk,” which Valentin said has become the oldest running female-led podcast in the United States, turned out very well. Berger said the goal for part two was record twice as many women. Only girls interviewed the women in part one; this time, young men joined in, too, in order not to exclude anyone. The partners helped recruit young people as well as the interview subjects, and Rutkowski posted flyers throughout the area to find more.
“For a project like this, we needed people who have deep relationships with the Hill District,” the special projects manager said.
“SLB” staff worked with the students apart from its summer camps program. The students learned the basics of recording, microphones and audio production, then an interview’s purpose, material “SLB” developed over its years of working with young people and adults. Rutkowski said they practiced interviewing, active listening and other soft skills. Then the students dived into the actual interviews through the summer.
“Ben has a real gift for this,” Berger said, noting Rutkowski has worked at “SLB” for 13 years, “really helping students feel comfortable as they do this. Often they recognize that they feel nervous about interviewing someone. If you make someone feel comfortable, you end up with a wonderful interaction. We love the byproduct of these interviews and reflections the students have recorded.”
The students worked in teams to help each other and learn at the same time. “Students understand becoming engaged with another person, another student, Berger said. “It’s very positive to engage with another person.”
The students recorded their own reflections on the project, ranging from the inspiration the interviewees gave them and helpful advice for their own lives to the history they learned. One of the three Sisters of Mercy interviewed told them about her Selma, Alabama, civil rights experiences, which Valentin said resonated with them.
“I think many times they’d be talking to this person who grew up where they live now about pools and parks that don’t exist now,” Rukowski said, adding one brought in a photo album for the students. “They were shocked at what the main street used to look like in the Hill District. It was great to see that connection.
“It was a big ask for some of these kids to interview multiple strange adults. The kids rose to the challenge and really did a great job.”
“SLB” staff took on the post-production work turning the half-hour to 45-minute or longer interviews, recorded at the partner organizations’ sites, into the interviews uploaded to the website this past November. Each interview has a transcript, checked word for word for accuracy.
The public radio nonprofit has kept all the raw audio, but the goal remained to offer the community professional quality recordings. “We want these stories to be listened to; therefore, we need to take the expanse of these 45 minutes and try to distill out the essence of those messages and do that authentically,” Berger said.
Later the interviews will become podcasts and made available through public radio networks. That means they could be heard around the world, Berger said.
Valentin found the project incredibly important. “As much as we have come forward as a society, it is still so hard for our young girls to see themselves in places rather than where they are now,” she said. “You hear in these stories from women in the community about when they hadn’t moved into leadership positions, and now they are. It is so important to tell our stories. If you don’t know your past, you don’t know where you are going. It’s important to share that tradition, focusing on it as a community, [and if you don’t,] you lose so much.”
Berger said oral history projects have a role “in an era where we talk to somebody, size them up and make assumptions about what they have to say and offer.” He said the “whole process of asking questions and listening and realizing how much there is of value and to learn from any other human being is a remarkable experience.”
Also, young people believe for the most part that life is pretty linear, he added, with setting a goal and getting to it via a straight path. “When they listen to adults, [they] realize there are a lot of twist and turns. Sometimes there are triumphs over adversity or a shifting in plans, changes in interests. Other people experience this, and they turn out great. There’s that great exposure that is really helpful.”
Valentin agrees with that, and it’s fresh in her mind because McAuley Ministries just finished a listening session with it partner organizations. The nonprofit considers all of its grantees partners, and they are concerned about federal budget cuts and funding freezes and more.
“Right now we’re in this space of feeling so anxious and uncertain about the future,” the executive director said. “We call the partners the elders in the community. We have strength within us, and we are enough. Look at all the strength we have in this community, and we will be OK.”
So much more that she said the oral history partnership with “SLB“ will continue. Details have not been released but will be announced soon.
Helen is a copy editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but she's currently on strike. Contact her at hfallon@unionprogress.com.