Your article on the negative influence of hip-hop was entirely unfair ("Researcher cites negative influences of hip-hop," June 13).

As a member of the Pittsburgh hip-hop community, I use hip-hop music education as a method to empower youth. Your article's demonization of hip-hop entirely ignored the positive side of current hip-hop culture. There is an international network of hip-hop artists whose work carries messages that empower young people. This community includes high-profile artists such as Common, Lupe Fiasco and Mos Def.

The negative persona of hip-hop is the product of the media much more than it's the responsibility of hip-hop itself. If you want someone to blame, blame yourselves for wasting space that could have been used to inform people about hip-hop artists who are struggling to spread positive messages in a culture that is quick to characterize anything that is poor and black as harmful and wrong.

Amos Levy
Friendship

I wish that I had had the opportunity to share several recent experiences with Carolyn West, quoted in "Researcher sites negative influences of hip-hop." For the past six years, I have been the director of a Professional Development for Urban Music Educators Project that particularly focuses on the middle school grades. Through an attitude survey, we learned that more than 85 percent of the students in the participating schools in Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg listened to the same hip-hop radio station. To be successful in engaging these young people, we had to respect and learn their language.

From the beginning, our project has included rappers who were students at Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh. Public school students have found this art form to be a natural and creative form of expression.

One seventh-grade girl in a music class wrote lyrics explaining why crying for her friend who had been killed was "not a waste of time."

In another project, supported by the Center for the Arts and Society at Carnegie Mellon, public school students and young adults worked with young professional rappers and recording technicians from the Pittsburgh area in the Arts Greenhouse. In the end of the year celebration, they were joined in performance by Jasiri X, a Pittsburgh rapper and community activist, and Queen GodIs, from Brooklyn, a graduate of Vassar who performed rap songs with a strongly positive message. Participants had become comfortable on the Carnegie Mellon campus and had gained skill with technology, poise and confidence. Even though they represented the realities of their lives, there were no degrading messages in these lyrics.

Early blues lyrics, jazz rhythms and the Beatles were all considered threats to the establishment. Certainly, there are rap lyrics that are inappropriate, but helping young people find the positive messages, and to critically evaluate what they hear is a far more rewarding and achievable goal than to condemn the art form and try to prevent young people from listening.

Natalie L. Ozeas, Ed.D.
Associate Head, School of Music
Director, Division of Music Education
Carnegie Mellon

I am responding to "Comic Slur" (Weekend Feedback, June 5), which described "The Meaning of Lila" as offensive and mediocre. In particular, the letter reprimanded the newspaper and me for including the word "homo."

As the writer of "Lila" and a gay man, I'm completely dumbfounded by this comment. My straight and gay friends and I are completely comfortable both celebrating and mocking each other and will use terms such as "homo" and "hetero," "queer" and "breeder" in the spirit of collegial and humorous banter. This is the same banter that is represented often between the two main characters of the strip, Lila and Boyd.

I can say it hasn't been easy to get newspapers to accept a gay character in their comic pages and appreciate the few that have welcomed me. They are truly risking offending more conservative readers with what I believe are very real topics for younger people today. I've had to deal with a lot of homophobia and sexism in the past four years writing "Lila," including people referring to Boyd as a pedophile, Lila as a slut, and me as a writer promoting sinful lifestyles. These comments represent the first time I was ever criticized for offending my own people.

You may have noticed that there really aren't any gay characters on the comics pages except for some side characters in non-recurring stories. Boyd represents the first substantial gay character written by a gay writer on mainstream comics pages.

The comic has, indeed, been compared to "Will & Grace" for Lila and Boyd's relationship and "Sex and the City" for its more racy and realistic gags around women's issues and single life. Lila and Boyd are customer service representatives who are trying to find their way, but who definitely are comfortable with themselves. Lila doesn't feel the need to live up to expectations of career women who want it all and Boyd isn't defensive or proactive about his sexuality. They are two young people trying to carve out their small life in the world.

I'm sorry and disappointed that you find the strip either offensive or mediocre. But I don't think you can understand Lila or Boyd or their relationship by reading a couple of week's worth of strips. I would respectfully ask that you spend some time with the strip before posting your criticisms.

John Forgetta
Artist, 'The Meaning of Lila'

As new residents of Pittsburgh, we are confused as to how this newspaper can be proud to be associated with the Post-Gazette Pavilion. We attended the Tom Petty concert last week and it took us three hours to drive 21 miles. The traffic started on I-79 and continued bumper to bumper all the way to the pavilion.

We completely missed Steve Winwood and were barely in our seats at the start of Tom Petty. We have never witnessed such a disgrace of a concert venue and have attended concerts in Ohio, Colorado and California. This is an injustice to everyone who lives in Pittsburgh and attends concerts. How can you accommodate all the Pirates and Steelers fans with efficient parking when those venues seat thousands more than the Post-Gazette Pavilion?

To be told that you have to arrive two hours before a concert starts in order to avoid traffic is ridiculous. We paid $110 for concert tickets, burned up a third of our tank of gas at $4 a gallon and spent another $80 for our baby-sitter. Since this is the main summer concert venue, I cannot believe you expect your concert fans to endure this every summer. There must be a way to improve the parking and traffic flow at this location. You should be ashamed to bring performers to this venue when most of their fans miss the show because they're sitting in traffic.

With the cost of concert tickets today, your residents deserve better.

Audrey Dunn
Sewickley

When I read last week's Weekend Feedback (June 12), I had to wonder, did somebody declare this Grumpy Man Week? We were subjected to rants about everything from movie advertisements and Bill Clinton to intrusive corporate logos and too-loud commercials. Those complaints were tired 15 years ago, let alone now. And using a DVR to skip the ads? Not exactly a revelation.

Finally, to Alan Kaufman, who griped that the PG gave an unfair review of his Nubrella. One photograph of that absurd contraption is all I need to convince me never to buy it.

Sheesh, gentlemen, lighten up! It's summer -- slather on the sunscreen and go enjoy some commercial-free fresh-air fun. The Schenley Plaza carousel would be a great place to start working on those smiles.

Elizabeth Polen
West View