Writer departs the War Streets

Exiled poet exits to the Exit State

Dissident writer/painter Huang Xiang, considered to be “China’s Walt Whitman,” has left Pittsburgh after completing his two-year term with City of Asylum/Pittsburgh.

Huang and his wife, Zhang Ling, moved to New Jersey to be closer to family. While in Pittsburgh, Huang spoke little English and relied on his wife to translate.

City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, which is part of The North American Network of Cities of Asylum, provides sanctuary to writers exiled under threat of death, imprisonment, or persecution in their native countries. The program, which receives no government money, provides housing, a stipend, medical benefits, legal and translation services and job placement should they want additional income.

During his stay in Pittsburgh, former mayor Tom Murphy declared Sunday, Nov. 21, 2004, 'Huang Xiang Day.” In celebration, Huang painted poems on his Sampsonia Way wooden house in the Mexican War Streets on the North Side.

Huang’s writings clashed with Chairman Mao’s Communist propaganda and spent more than 10 years in jail. He arrived in the U.S. in 1997 and moved to Pittsburgh in 2004.

Huang will return to Pittsburgh next month to take part in City of Asylum’s Free Jazz-Poetry Concert on Sept. 8.

Horacio Castellanos Moya, Huang’s former Sampsonia neighbor, is City of Asylum’s current writer-in-residence. Moya, who was exiled from El Salvador after receiving death threats for exposing links between the country's political and military rightist leaders and organized crime, has written eight novels, five short story collections and one book of essays. His novel “Senselessness” is now being translated into English for a Spring 2008 release. He will also read at the event.

Moya has no plans to move to New Jersey.

Photo above by Frank Kownacki: (l to r) Starving artist Karl Huber; An animated Mr. Dish; Horacio "Why am I eating with these ninnies?" Moya