The Manteca Bar, reviled by so many in the Central Northside before it closed under threat of legal action in April 2008, will be given a long last look during a street party Saturday night to herald the site's next era, as the City of Asylum Pittsburgh's Alphabet City Literary Center.

The free public event is part of a week of literary events City of Asylum is hosting, including readings held Tuesday and May 10 and 11 by novelists Gary Shteyngart and Jean Kwok.

City of Asylum Pittsburgh, a nonprofit based on Sampsonia Way, gives refuge -- a home and other financial support -- to writers who are endangered in their own countries. Co-founders Henry Reese and Diane Samuels established their home and have renovated four others on Sampsonia for writers. City of Asylum also is the host of the annual Jazz Poetry Concert and regular readings by authors, both visiting and in residence.

Saturday's street party -- at 1410 Monterey St. and on Sampsonia Way, where a tent will be set up -- will include tours of the four writers' homes and the former Manteca. The dance party will feature music in the tradition of the collaboration between jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and Cuban percussionist Luciano "Chano" Pozo, who co-wrote the song "Manteca" in 1947.

A video will be made of the event, and photos and stories from the event will go into a time capsule.

Mr. Reese said he expects construction on the literary center to begin this fall.

After years of complaints from residents about criminal behavior surrounding the bar, the Manteca closed voluntarily in April 2008 under threat of action by the Allegheny County district attorney a month after two patrons were shot, one fatally, upon leaving the bar.

At the time, Mr. Reese had an option to buy the bar as one of three adjacent parcels he wanted for an expansion of City of Asylum's presence and mission.

As Literary Ventures LLC, he bought a house two addresses from the bar in 2006. In October 2008, he bought the vacant lot beside it and the Manteca beside the lot. The two buildings will be razed to accommodate a nearly 4,000-square-foot building with an interior, glassed-in courtyard. The center will house a bookstore, a cafe, a public gathering space for readings, performances and other events, and two upstairs apartments.

Mr. Reese said the building will be a mix of two and three stories, with a mezzanine on one side. He said he does not have estimates of the cost yet.

City of Asylum Pittsburgh was established in 2004, joining the network of 34 Cities of Asylum, four of which are in the United States. It brought its first writer, Chinese poet Huang Xiang, on board that year and has supported two others since, Horacio Castellanos Moya of El Salvador and Khet Mar of Burma.

The local City of Asylum is the only one in the U.S. not associated with a university and depends on contributions.