Bill O'Driscoll

3 weeks ago | wesa.fm | Bill O'Driscoll

Uganda is more than 7,000 miles from Pittsburgh, and it’s safe to say the cultural distance is comparable. But as youths in Pittsburgh’s KRUNK Movement program learned, some things are universal, including concern for the environment. KRUNK youths and students at Uganda’s Kichwamba High School have collaborated on a new hip-hop song promoting sustainability. It’s called “Suubi,” or “hope” in the Luganda language.

4 weeks ago | wesa.fm | Bill O'Driscoll

This is WESA Arts, a weekly newsletter by Bill O'Driscoll providing in-depth reporting about the Pittsburgh area art scene. Sign up here to get it every Wednesday afternoon. Reimagining stage works to better address the times is a time-honored practice. Orson Welles mounted his epochal version of “Julius Caesar” evoking Nazi Germany and fascist Italy in 1937 — nearly 90 years ago. Pittsburgh Opera’s production of Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” looks to do something a bit different.

1 month ago | wesa.fm | Bill O'Driscoll

Unless you’re a fan of Formula One racing, Lewis Hamilton might be the most successful athlete you’ve never heard of. He might also be the most intriguing. In 2007, the British-born Hamilton became Formula One’s first Black driver ever. He’s still the only one, along with being a seven-time world champion, the international sport’s winningest driver, and Great Britain's richest sportsman.

1 month ago | wesa.fm | Bill O'Driscoll

“The Last Manager,” John Miller’s new biography of baseball Hall of Famer Earl Weaver, has two key pitches in its arsenal. One is a fastball down the pipe: Weaver, as long-time fans recall, was a cantankerous throwback who theatrically harried umpires and routinely got tossed from games, all on the way to four World Series appearances (including two against the Pittsburgh Pirates) and one Series win with the Baltimore Orioles.

1 month ago | wesa.fm | Bill O'Driscoll

This is WESA Arts, a weekly newsletter by Bill O'Driscoll providing in-depth reporting about the Pittsburgh area art scene. Sign up here to get it every Wednesday afternoon. Geographically, it’s easy to place Appalachia, that region spanning 13 states, from central Mississippi north to New York’s Southern Tier. There’s even a map. Culturally, Appalachia is harder to define. Many Americans would stereotype it as poor and white, rural and backward.