He sounds like Cheech Marin, raps like Jay Z, and preaches love like Gandhi. Hamza Perez is not your average Muslim. Mr. Perez, the Imam of the Light of the Age Mosque located on Pittsburgh’s North Side, also serves as the Youth Director at the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, where he runs YA-NE, Youth Alliance for Networking and Empowerment program. If the adage is true
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For those born after 1960, the name David L. Lawrence may mean nothing more than the it being the formal title of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, but the man behind this name is one of the most important figures in the city’s history and quite possibly its best mayor. If it weren’t for Lawrence, Pittsburgh would be a whole lot different today. Who
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When Michael Bonaventura arrived in Pittsburgh in 1983, the city’s steel industry had bottom out, but Michael’s life was on the rise. He had come here to purse two dreams: marrying his beautiful Pittsburgh fiancée, Antoinette, and becoming a well-respected chef. Happily, both of those dreams have come true. Michael married Antoinette, and they are the owners of the renowned restaurant The Gran Canal in
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They say there’s a grain of truth in all humor. If so, then Curt Wooten and Chris Preksta, the creative team behind the beloved Pittsburgh Dad, have harvested enough grains from their humor to make a loaf of Town Talk bread. Pittsburgh Dad is the online sitcom that captures the essence of what Pittsburgh fathers are like. Wooten, who dons aviator glasses and combs his
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Sadly, it’s become a routine occurrence as more and more well-known athletes reveal that they believe they have chronic traumatic encephalopathy. CTE, a brain disease, its discovery, and the fallout from those findings all tie back to Pittsburgh. If you have seen the critically acclaimed 2015 movie Concussion starring Will Smith, you know that pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu first discovered CTE here in Pittsburgh. Dr.
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Often when a name is so well-known, the person bearing that name lives in the shadow of its prestigious reputation. That would be the case of Richard King Mellon. Since the mid-1800s, the name Mellon has been a household one associated with wealth. Mellon’s Banking Background Thomas Mellon, Richard King Mellon’s, grandfather, established the private bank T. Mellon and Sons in 1869. His son Andrew
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Runners know all about pushing through the pain to achieve their dreams, but the true measure of champions is how they react when their dream is stripped from them. Such was the case with Patrice Matamoros. A champion high school runner in Montana, had hopes of competing in the Olympics, but a devastating injury she suffered while in college ended her running career. She could
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Recently, Popular Pittsburgh chatted with Lee Terbosic, a nationally touring magician and comedian. A Pittsburgh native, Mr. Terbosic, 34, will put the city in the spotlight November 6th, when he attempts “Houdini 100.” At noon, while dangling upside-down high above the corner of Liberty Avenue and Wood Street in a straitjacket, he will attempt to undo himself in a death-defying feat of magic that has
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Baron Batch came to Pittsburgh as the Steelers’ seventh-round pick in the NFL’s 2011 draft out of Texas Tech University, where he was the school’s eighth-ranked, all-time rushing leader and where he led the team in rushing his senior year with 816 yards on 177 carries. In retrospect, it seems that football would turn out to be only a means for Batch to find his
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There is no such thing as luck. It’s a fancy name for being always at our duty, and so sure to be ready when good time comes. ~Edward George Bulwer-Lytton Pittsburgh’s past is replete with colorful characters, spectacular sportsmen, and stellar geniuses, but George E. Smith was all three. Smith, known as Pittsburgh Phil, was the greatest plunger of his time, possibly ever. No, he was
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