Pittsburgh Humanities Festival runs March 24-26

The second Pittsburgh Humanities Festival, presented by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University, runs March 24-26, with about 30 programs of “smart talk that matters” on the theme of Being Human by scholars, artists, writers and more. Most of the on-stage interviews and conversations take place at Downtown venues, including the Trust Arts Education Center, the Harris Theater and the Byham Theater.

The three featured presenters include: the writers of The Onion (March 24), the Facebook-winning satirical news organization that gave us headlines like “Drugs Win Drug War”; Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef (March 25, see main feature); and writer, scholar and former Black Panther official Kathleen Neal Cleaver and activist and former Black Panther Denise Oliver-Velez (March 26).

Guests at a series of daytime Core Conversations, many running simultaneously at multiple venues, include: author and Penn State literature professor Michael Berube; Dance Theatre of Harlem Artistic Director Virginia Johnson; documentary filmmaker Steve James (Hoop Dreams); Carnegie Mellon art professor Suzie Silver (A Presentation of Queer Media Projects); University of California scholar Elizabeth Watkins (“On the Pill”); poet and former National Endowment for the Arts chair Dana Gioia; local comics creators Yona Harvey and Ed Piskor; famed Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau; and Syrian-born writer Osama Alomar.

“Partner events” include a dance performance, a concert and film screenings.

Tickets for the three featured events are $15-50 each. Core Conversations are $10-20 each. All-access passes are $45-120. Partner events are ticketed separately.

For a complete schedule, see www.trustarts.org/smarttalk.