While listening to a DJ’s music and shuffling around the dance floor, some 20-somethings have found the connections they needed to land jobs. First Fridays

This Friday and every first Friday of the months to follow

9 p.m. to 2 a.m. (Most start at 7 p.m.)

980 Liberty Ave.

firstfridayspitt.com

While listening to a DJ’s music and shuffling around the dance floor, some 20-somethings have found the connections they needed to land jobs.

Xavier Hairston-Khan, a recent CMU graduate, compared the First Fridays events at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture to a college party with older and more mature attendees. The nationally recognized parties, which are held each month, are meant to help young black professionals find jobs within the city, though anyone is allowed to attend.

Hairston-Khan, who now works for Turner Construction as a field engineer, said that with this crowd he was able to network and learn more about local professional organizations.

“What I appreciated most about First Fridays was the fact that I was surrounded by a positive group of people of color,” Hairston-Khan said. “There were people like me, young and professional, who had similar aspirations and were working to achieve them … Just being surrounded by those people was welcoming. Having fun with them was an added bonus.”

The events are organized by Justin Nwokeji, founder and executive director of Savvy Marketing. Savvy Marketing is a marketing, entertainment, event planning and promotions group. It’s dedicated to creating events and using various industries to improve opportunities for urban residents.

The First Fridays tradition has been in Pittsburgh for more than 30 years, but this year, Nwokeji intends to raise the bar. He began by changing the venue of the event from the Shadow Lounge  to the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, located in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District. With this change in venue, Nwokeji hopes to compete with other cities around the nation.

When he came to Pittsburgh from Washington, D.C., in 2007, Nwokeji noticed there weren’t a lot of social events for young black professionals in Pittsburgh. He felt there was a void that needed to be filled.

“We wanted these young professionals to have a place to go not only to just enjoy themselves but also to network with like-minded individuals,” he said. So he revamped the The Reel House First Fridays event.

This year, attendees can expect to participate in an art gallery crawl hosted by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. For the first part of the night, usually beginning at 7 p.m., they can enjoy a networking happy hour that begins with a live jazz band — this month the Live City Jazz Band is featured — hors d’oeuvres and a chance to interact with the corporate sponsor of the month, although there is no corporate sponsor this month. In a change, this month’s event will begin at 9 p.m.

January’s corporate sponsor was Highmark, a Pittsburgh-based company that manages Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurance. Nwokeji thought it was important to include networking with a local corporation in the night’s agenda because he wanted to enlighten young black professionals about the job opportunities available for them in Pittsburgh.

Though many universities are present in the area, Nwokeji believes that “Pittsburgh doesn’t keep the young professionals or students who get their education here past graduation.” He attributed this lack of retention to the students’ lack of knowledge of the companies that are looking to hire minorities in the area.

Alecia Shipman, cultivation associate for the center, found herself in exactly that position years ago when first pursuing her undergraduate degree in New York. She, like many of her friends, left Pittsburgh to find a more suitable environment.

When Shipman returned to Pittsburgh to begin her graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon University, she thought the pickings were slim.

Sometime between the hours of 9 and 10 p.m. on a First Friday evening, the DJ proceeds to play a mixture of hip-hop, R&B and soul music and the atmosphere becomes more party-like, Nwokeji said.

Yet it’s evident to Shipman that the focus is never taken away from the exchange and cultivation of culture.

“There were a few times that I would leave out of the dance area and see people actually looking at the artwork on the walls,” she said. “First Fridays is a prime opportunity for people not only to enjoy our space [at the center] and the nightlife atmosphere, but to also embrace the arts.”

Shipman, like Nwokeji, hopes that Pittsburgh can begin to do some embracing of its own.

“A lot of recent graduates leave because they can’t find what they need here,” Shipman said. “They don’t feel like Pittsburgh is for them.”

“It’s obviously an issue,” she continued. “But it’s most obvious when you see students who have graduated from Pitt, CMU or other universities in the area, and they immediately apply for jobs elsewhere.”