Poet Jan Beatty's demand that Joseph-Beth Bookstore apologize to her and allow her to read her sexually explicit poetry in a public thoroughfare is rich with irony ("Bookstore and poet in war of words over reading," April 22). Can there be any doubt that this sensitive artist decries the forces of conservative intolerance in her writings, political views and choice of social strata? Yet when the time comes for her to show a little tolerance for others she reacts with cries of "censorship"!

Joseph-Beth Bookstore offered reasonable accommodations to allow a book signing without the reading or a reading with the store sound system turned off. But that was not enough for this paragon of tolerance. Ms. Beatty is demanding to shove her explicit poetry down our collective throats.

Please don't back down, Joseph-Beth Bookstore, from your principled and legally sound stand -- it is Ms. Beatty that needs to apologize to you and to all the really tolerant people of Pittsburgh.

Dorn Checkley
Highland Park

The writer is the director of the Pittsburgh Coalition Against Pornography.

On Saturday night, my family had a great experience at the Joe Jackson concert at the Carnegie Library Music Hall in Homestead.

You see, my sister, Kimmy, is mentally retarded, and about 20 years ago, heard Mr. Jackson's music and fell in love with it. Over the course of the years, we have heard his music thousands of times, as she plays it on a daily basis. There is one song in particular that she loves: "Steppin' Out."

Before the concert, my mother passed a note to one of Mr. Jackson's crew members, telling him that my sister was in the audience and would he be kind enough to play this song for her. Imagine our surprise when he opened the show with "Steppin' Out." My sister went wild, as did the rest of us.

In this day in age of celebrities gone wild, Mr. Jackson proved what a class act he is.

Patty Schneider
Ben Avon

Last Tuesday I saw the Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre's performance of "King Lear" at Charity Randall Theatre in Oakland and was completely overwhelmed. The fantastic ensemble acting brought out the story's great depth. It has the deep human tragedy but also triumph, heroism, comedy and an arresting look and sound to match.

I encourage everyone who likes live entertainment to hurry and buy a ticket for this fantastic evening of theater.

Blaine Connor
Greenfield

Thank you, Post-Gazette, for sending a reviewer to our concert this past weekend ("Music Review: Camerata skillfully follows literary trail," April 21). I enjoyed meeting Burkhardt Reiter, and obviously I was very pleased with what he wrote. I believe in giving credit where credit is due, however belatedly, and I wanted to thank Andrew Druckenbrod for his part in the current artistic success of The Pittsburgh Camerata.

When he first joined the staff of the Post-Gazette in 1999, he reviewed our Christmas concert. Let's just say that he was disappointed in us and didn't pull any punches.

Naturally, I didn't enjoy getting such a review, and I wanted to think that his remarks were not justified. As it happened, though, that particular performance was recorded.

Thus does technology make fools of us all.

At any rate, it gave me a great deal to think about, and in the ensuing years I have modified certain aspects of my direction. As a result I am more able to help the singers to live up to their potential as individuals and as a group.

I expect that being a reviewer is a thankless task, and the position can certainly be abused. But thoughtful, informed reviews can provide useful feedback and information for the organizations being reviewed.

This provides an extremely valuable service to the arts community. So thanks to the Post-Gazette for continuing to review classical music when I'm sure there is tremendous pressure to use the space for more lucrative and/or popular content, and thank you for doing your job with integrity.

Rebecca Rollett
Artistic director, The Pittsburgh Camerata