Pop Star: Judy Robinson

“Pittsburgh is part and parcel of me,” poet Judy Robinson says, “a strong presence in my world.” She pauses. “I’ve traveled everywhere, but I’ve never found a place I’d rather live.”

Now she and 87 of her closest friends are celebrating their home and/or chosen city with a beautiful volume of poetry and photography, Along These Rivers.

Writing and teaching poetry, Robinson, a Squirrel Hill native, and Allderdice and Pitt grad, found others feel the same way about Pittsburgh. Although her own work, largely about “the indifference of nature to our plight,” she says, does not necessarily express the joie de ‘Burgh that others might, she nevertheless feels a visceral connection to these poets, to this place.

An endless encourager and enabler of others’ work, in 1989 she and the late Pat Dobler co-created Living Inland, a ground-breaking volume of poetry and photography by women. Editor since 2001 of the poetry sections of Carnegie Mellon's biennial Signatures, in 2005 Robinson edited Only the Sea Keeps, a global poetry collection about the tsunami’s disastrous aftermath.

With Pittsburgh 250 looming, a year ago Robinson put out the call: poetry and photography again, this time from both genders. The call was answered – and then some, 1,000 submissions from artists with some strong tie to Pittsburgh -- born and bred here, or at least part of Pittsburgh long enough for it to leave a lasting impression. “Pittsburgh,” Robinson says, “is in the sensibility and life career of these artists” – even if they were writing about Jerusalem, say, or photographing Provençal. “We didn’t limit them in any way,” she adds. “We said, ‘send us your best work.’ And they did!”

Ably assisted by poet Michael Wurster, Robinson looked for the “intersection of poetry and photography, for a coherence between written and visual images. Among the most meaningful art forms of our time, they both pursue the same essential truths.”

Working endless unpaid hours at her Oakland home, Robinson scored a real coup. Approaching American Master, Pittsburgh native, and CMU grad Philip Pearlstein, she asked to use two classic 1948 Pittsburgh paintings, both of Hazelwood, for the front and back covers. “He gave them to us,” she marvels.

Inside, Maestro Pearlstein is accompanied by a slew of different styles, ages, and approaches. From departed doyens Sue Saniel Elkind and Jack Wolford to emerging lights Timons Esaias and Ziggy Edwards, shutterbug stalwarts Aaronel deRoy Gruber and Andrea London, Robinson’s all-star line-up serves a pithy Pittsburgh potpourri of words and images, heavy industrial to softly intimate, Braddock Avenue to Carson Street, Kaufmann’s windows to the Wheel Café.

With all proceeds going to Poets for Humanity, a nonprofit which supports needy people worldwide, Robinson frankly revels in her creation. “It has to do with diversity,” she says. “There’s an equality of life in Pittsburgh. There are many talented people drawn here. There’s all this culture here, in this tiny little civilized city.” She pauses. “Maybe it’s the water,” she laughs.

“I’m proud of this book,” she adds. “I really am.”

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Abby Mendelson’s latest book, Ghost Dancer, a collection of short stories, is available at amazon and bn.com.

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Photographs copyright Brian Cohen