Pittsburgh Humanities Festival announces 2019 lineup, "carrot cake with chocolate chips"

On Tuesday, the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announced the lineup for the Pittsburgh Humanities Festival 2019, which features events with Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians, and the hosts of the comedy/horror show Last Podcast on the Left.

Now in its fourth year, the festival aims to bring together both local and national artists, writers, and thinkers to figure out "what it means to be human." Running March 22-24, the festival is comprised of the two featured events, as well as more than a dozen "core conversations," featuring interactive on-stage interviews.

"The Humanities Festival is designed to bring the wealth of humanities to everyone in an entertaining way," says David Shumway, co-director of the festival. "The humanities deal with everything human do and make and the humanities festival celebrates that by making it entertaining. We like to think of it as not spinach, but carrot cake with chocolate chips."

Tickets for the featured events vary; admission to the core conversations are $5, with the hopes that attendees will be able to go to multiple events in a day. The conversations include Angélique Roché, host of the Marvel Voices podcast; DJ Perly, the first woman to win the DMC annual DJ battle; David Newell, aka Mr. McFeely; and Trump-focused cartoonist Rob Rogers, among others.

Within the larger Humanities Festival will be Bookish in the 'Burgh, a free, one-day mini festival for teens and young adult authors.

"There are very few teen book festivals in the Mid-Atlantic region, so the opportunity to bring these critically acclaimed and New York Times-bestselling young adult authors for a free festival designed especially for teens is incredibly special and exciting for our city," says Kelsey Ford, programming manager at the Cultural Trust in a press release.

Bookish will feature local young adult writers, like Rachael Lippincott, author of Five Feet Apart, as well as conversations between national writers, including Jay Coles, author of Tyler Johnson Was Here and Rachel Lynn Solomon, author of You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone. The festival also includes a free writing workshop.