City Books and Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation will host “Gertrude Stein Day” on Saturday, February 3, in honor of the writer’s 150th birthday. The event will take place from 12-4 PM at the shop located at 908 Galveston Ave on the Northside.
Stein was born in 1874 at 850 Beech Avenue, halfway between the current locations of the independent bookstore and the service organization founded in 2017 to improve the health of the LGBTQ+ and HIV communities.
The event will feature Stein’s work, giveaways, and refreshments while supplies last. Kathleen Dixon Donnelly, author of Such Friends: The Literary 1920s and scholar specializing in Gertrude Stein and the Americans in Paris, will lead an informal discussion of the Pittsburgher’s international legacy and a walk to the front of the author’s birthplace, weather permitting.
Beyond Gertrude Stein’s intellectual pursuits, she was a prominent LGBTQ+ icon—despite the Nazi occupation of France—where she lived most of her adult life in partnership with Alice B. Toklas. She was close friends with Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp and an early collector of the works of Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne. As a result, Stein’s legacy and influence spans literature, art, and LGBTQ+ visibility.
For further information about the event, please contact Arlan Hess at citybookspgh@gmail.com. Kathleen Dixon Donnelly and representatives of Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation are also available for media comment.