Bolden Journalism Workshop Alum Exhibits Artwork for 2nd Time with Art for August

By India Cerdan



Artist Corey Carrington was born in Washington D.C., and moved to Pittsburgh with his mom when he was 8 years old.

“My mom is from Pittsburgh. My dad is originally from Guyana. So, I like to tell people I'm mixed. I'm half project and half Third World. I say that because that informs how I look at the world. I don't look at the world just through an African American lens. I just look at Blackness as something global” he says.

In the 10^th grade, Carrington was having difficulty finding his place in the world and through trying extracurricular activities he found poetry. His teacher, Miss Clever, introduced him to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. writing awards, facilitated by Carnegie Mellon University. Carrington  drafted a poem for their submission. The poem was about how society perceived Black young men and Black teenagers and about how Carrington wanted society to perceive himself. Later, he was chosen to read his poem at Carnegie Mellon University and that is when his mother knew he was a good writer. Afterward, she begun to get him involved in as many writing opportunities as she could, including the Pittsburgh Black Media Federation’s Frank Bolden Urban Journalism Workshop.

What the workshop taught Carrington, and something that he still utilizes today, is being able to create on the fly, being flexible with his creativity, how to pivot, and the importance of referencing and fact checking. Outside of all the skills he obtained, the workshop also gave him the unique opportunity to be in proximity to Black professionals ranging from journalists, rappers like Sharon Don to photojournalists. This experience allowed him to understand what it meant to have a professional career versus simply a job.

“I think that lines up with my art today,” he said, “because I'm really good about or I'm critical about where I'm getting my influences. I also like to cite my inspiration and my references, allowing for me to connect to the audience because it's like, all right, you know, I'm creating this stuff from my mind, but I also am utilizing different cultural signifiers or references because I do want the audience to be able to like, ‘Oh, I see that.’ ”

During college, Carrington would spend his summer breaks performing poetry during open mic nights in the Shadow Lounge where upcoming poets, singers, and rappers would perform. After graduating, he realized spaces wouldn’t allocate a budget to pay him to perform his poetry and because he was a teaching artist at the time, he learned he really enjoyed collage making. He saw that as a solution to earning income as he began to sell artwork during his sets. Now, Carrington finds himself creating pieces through collage making more than writing poetry.

He says: “It was frustrating sometimes always having to come up with words versus images,” but he finds a way to practice all of the creative sides.

Carrington currently has work displayed with Art for August, a competitive exhibition where 10 artists submit work inspired by the life of work of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. Carrington’s piece is titled the “Many Faces of August,” which was the last piece that his mom, Ginger Underwood, saw before she passed away in December 2025.

“She was able to see it, and I told her, like, you know, I think this is a winner” he said. His recent collage takes all the different influences and things that have been named after August Wilson in Pittsburgh and puts them all together, even the image of a mural of  Wilson that was painted on the side of the Black Beauty Bar in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh.

“I'm really proud of August Wilson because he's a Black man who made his name global and worldwide off of his words, and his vision to be able to tell stories” Carrington said.

Because Wilson’s art was influenced by the Pittsburgh community, where he lived, and then reached audiences across the world, Carrington figures the playwright is someone he can look up to and be reminded that he, too, can create locally, but tell his story worldwide.