Laurie Trok x Peel Open Session, debuting new menu, September 19 at Peel in Squirrel Hill.

Newish Squirrel Hill teahouse Peel is hosting an Open Session on September 19 where it will unveil its new menu.

Laurie Trok x Peel is a kinetic menu collaboration for play, translocal encounters, and rituals.

Laurie is a multidisciplinary artist whose work leans into our experience of the ephemeral and the ways time is made visible by entropy. Food is central to this practice and Laurie has sought to create menus that investigate our relationship to time.

Often sourcing directly from their own garden, Laurie’s and Peel’s practices are both particularly attuned to time and place-specificity. The collaboration approaches temporalities and inheritances as sites where play, locality and collaboration can generate speculative rituals for tasting, relating and gathering.

Your ticket gives you access to the space from 12-5pm, with unlimited menu offerings available throughout the session (menu below). Once the reservation is made, there are no additional charges at Peel.

Tickets are available online for $38. More information is on Peel's Instagram post. Peel opened in February at 5806 Forbes Ave., second floor, above Uncle Sam's (map). 

2026 Indonesian horror film Sleep No More (Monster Pabrik Rambut) in Pittsburgh, September 18, part of SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival.

The 2026 Indonesian horror film Sleep No More (Monster Pabrik Rambut) will play in Pittsburgh on September 18, part of this year's SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival. A synopsis, by SCREENSHOT:

CONTENT WARNING: Violence, Extreme Gore

Following the horrific death of their mother while on the job at a wig factory in Jakarta, sisters Putri (Rachel Amanda) and Ida (Lutesha) decide to visit the premises to investigate. Upon arriving at the gloomy, prison-like building, they meet the mysterious and intimidating Mrs. Maryati (Didik Nini Thowok), the owner of the Evergreen factory, who tells them they will have to work there to pay off the colossal debt their late mother had incurred to fund Ida’s education. There are great bonuses, but the workers live in an exhausted, zombie-like state. When more workplace accidents (and eventual deaths) occur, the sisters begin to investigate. This visceral, grotesque body horror underscores the relationship between violence and labor, and the ability of capitalism to both steal everything from the human body, even using magic as a labor-saving resource in the pursuit of global profit.

It plays from 8:00 pm at the Harris Theater in downtown's Cultural District (map) and tickets are available online. University of Pittsburgh students, faculty, and staff can use promo code ASIAN2026 to get free tickets, but must show valid university ID at the door.

2025 Taiwanese film Before the Bright Day (南方時光) in Pittsburgh, September 18, for SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival.

The 2025 Taiwanese film Before the Bright Day (南方時光) will play in Pittsburgh on September 18, part of this year's SCREENSHOT: ASIA Film Festival running from September 16 through 23. A synopsis, by SCREENSHOT:

Before the Bright Day, the poignant directorial debut of emerging Taiwanese filmmaker Shih-Han Tsao, captures a young man’s turbulent coming-of-age against the backdrop of the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis. Chou (Hsuan-Li Chen), labeled a “B-class loser” by his teacher, yearns for more than his uneventful adolescence—especially with Min, the girl he likes, placed in the elite A-class. Disillusioned by his bleak home life and drawn to rebellion, Chou idolizes a small-time gang leader named Button. But as political tensions rise and his family’s financial stability crumbles, Chou’s world begins to fall apart. Button leaves for the military, his high school crush’s family may emigrate from the threat of impending war, and Chou is caught smoking, which is cause for expulsion. Drifting without direction, he must navigate a society on edge, where youthful dreams and harsh realities collide. With raw emotion and historical resonance, Before the Bright Day explores identity, class, and disillusionment during a pivotal moment in Taiwan’s modern history.

It plays at 1:30 pm at Frick Fine Arts Auditorium in Oakland (map), and tickets are available online. Tickets are free for CMU students and for University of Pittsburgh students, faculty, and staff.

2026 Korean movie Hope (호프) stays in Pittsburgh through (at least) September 24.

The 2026 Korean movie Hope (호프), which opened in Pittsburgh on September 9, will remain here through (at least) September 24.

A police chief, a policewoman and a group of hunters try to track down and kill a mysterious creature that's laying waste to a Korean village.

It plays locally at many area theaters, including: Squirrel Hill Manor, AMC Loews Waterfront, AMC Westmoreland in Greensburg, Chartiers Valley Luxury 14 + PTX, and the Cinemark theater in Robinson. Tickets are available online.

Singer-songwriter Lee Emi in Pittsburgh, November 7.

Singer-songwriter Lee Emi will perform in Pittsburgh on November 7.

Born in South Korea and raised in Michigan, singer-songwriter Lee Emi has performed her music for audiences across the country and overseas, using those experiences to add grit to her dark, thematic songwriting. Her indie-pop-rock music bears sharp teeth, leaning into the rawness of anger, grief, and self-doubt, weaving powerful melodies around potent lyrics that ask all of us: am I good enough?

Originally named Lee Sang-Eun and raised under the name Emilee Petersmark, Lee Emi began her career in 2010 as a primary songwriter and co-lead singer/guitarist in beloved West Michigan indie band, The Crane Wives. For the next 15 years, she would play bars, listening rooms, theatres, and concert venues across the continental US and release 5 studio records with the Crane Wives, all while quietly building a personal cache of songs that would eventually become her first solo record, DESTROY EVERYTHING, to be released in October 2026.

Doors open at 7:00 pm at the Thunderbird Cafe, show starts at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available online. The Thunderbird Cafe & Music Hall is located at 4023 Butler St. in Lawrenceville (map).

4K presentation of Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) for film's 30th anniversary, in Pittsburgh area from September 17.

A 4K presentation of Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊) for the film's 30th anniversary will play in Pittsburgh from September 17. A synopsis, from the Anime News Network:

In the year 2029, the barriers of our world have been broken down by the net and by cybernetics, but this brings new vulnerability to humans in the form of brain-hacking. When a highly-wanted hacker known as "The Puppetmaster" begins involving them in politics, Section 9, a group of cybernetically enhanced cops, are called in to investigate and stop the Puppetmaster. The pursuit will call into question what makes a human and what is the Puppetmaster in a world where the distinction between human and machine is increasingly blurry.

It is scheduled to play locally, so far, at the AMC Loews Waterfront, the AMC Westmoreland in Greensburg, and---on the 20th and 23rd only, for now---at the Cinemark theaters in McCandless, Monroeville, and Robinson. Tickets are available online.

Concert film BTS World Tour 'ARIRANG' in Buenos Aires: Live Viewing in Pittsburgh, October 24 and 25.

The upcoming concert film BTS World Tour 'ARIRANG' in Buenos Aires: Live Viewing will play in Pittsburgh on October 24 and 25.

The first-ever BTS Live Viewing broadcast from South America. Experience the BTS WORLD TOUR 'ARIRANG' in cinemas worldwide, broadcasting from Buenos Aires, Argentina! Marking the first time the band has ever performed in Argentina, this monumental concert will bring the explosive energy of the packed stadium straight to the big screen.

It plays locally, so far, at the Cinemark theaters in McCandless, Monaca, Monroeville, and Robinson, and tickets are available online.

Pittsburgh Taiko Beginners Workshop, September 20.

Pittsburgh Taiko is holding its second introductory workshop of the fall on Sunday, September 20.

Try taiko drumming with Pittsburgh Taiko!

Pittsburgh Taiko's beginner workshops give you a taste of taiko in a one-day, 2-hour format. These workshops are  designed for people who just want to give taiko a try, or folks who might be interested in joining our performing group. 

No experience is necessary! 

Taiko combines energetic hits with calm focus, balances group unity with individual expression, and requires both power and subtlety.  

Each workshop is a 2-hour introduction to taiko, including some taiko history and culture and focusing on hands-on basics. You’ll learn how to stand, how to hit, and some simple patterns that come together to make a percussion melody.  

Workshops are from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm at our studio in Bellevue. The workshops are designed for adults and older kids (high school or older). 

Note that our studio is a masked space, and unfortunately it is not accessible to folks who can't climb stairs.

Please read the information at pittsburghtaiko.com/classes before registering.

Classes are held at 2 N Balph Ave, Bellevue, PA 15202, Second Floor (map). The cost is $30 for Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania members and students, and $40 for the general public. Space is limited and as of this post there are six spots remaining. 

Hangul Day at University of Pittsburgh, October 2.

The University of Pittsburgh's Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures will host Hangul Day: Play Korea on October 2 Hangul (한글) is the Korean phonetic alphabet and it is celebrated in South Korea on October 9. Hangul Day: Play Korea will be held from 12:00 to 3:00 pm in the William Pitt Union Plaza (map).

2001 Japanese film Ichi the Killer (殺し屋1) at Parkway Theater, September 18.

The 2001 Japanese film Ichi the Killer (殺し屋1) will play at the Parkway Theater on September 18, the third installment in a run of three Asian Movie Madness films.

Takashi Miike’s Ichi the Killer (2001) is typically considered one of the most disturbing films ever made because it pushes violence and psychology to grotesque extremes. It’s even banned in Norway, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, outright.

As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreamed of.

Tickets are $10 at the door. The theater is located at 644 Broadway Ave. in McKees Rocks (map).