Poet-publisher Geoffrey Gatza reads from his work on Wednesday June 3 at The Center for Inquiry.

Tuesday, June 2, 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.: Just Buffalo Literary Center presents Teachers ARE Writers with Luke Daly (An In Gratitude Session).

This creative writing workshop will provide a dedicated space for teachers and educators to reconnect with their own creative practices. This session is inspired by the Just Buffalo Literary Center’s In Gratitude project—a city-wide initiative rooted in the “serious noticing” of everyday joy.

Through guided prompts and collaborative discussion, attendees will explore how the craft of gratitude can serve as a restorative tool for educators. This is a time take creative risks and contribute your own reflections to our growing gratitude archive. Come explore your own writing in a supportive environment designed to celebrate the small wonders of being alive.

Free & open to all educators. This workshop is FREE and aimed at teachers. BPS teachers can register on PGS; non-BPS teachers register by emailing Molly Eldridge at MEldridge@buffaloschools.org



About the Teaching Artist



Luke Daly writes and lives in Buffalo, NY, where Lake Erie ends and the Niagara River begins. His work can be found in Subtropics, Basalt, Poetry City USA, and Ghost City Review. He teaches full time as a senior lecturer in Rochester Institute of Technology’s University Writing Program.



Just Buffalo Literary Center, 468 Washington Street, 2nd Floor, Buffalo, NY 14203



Wednesday, June 3, 6:30 p.m.: Spoken word poetry open mic and community fund-raiser for J.B. Stone as he prepares for towards his travel, and accommodation expenses as heads to Orlando, FL to represent Buffalo at the 34th Annual Southern Fried Poetry Slam Festival, one of the largest and longest slam poetry festivals in the world, with nearly 200 poets from across the U.S. competing.



Joining Stone with be spoken word performers Bianca L. McGraw, Vonetta Rhodes and

Ashley M. Hardy. Donations will be encouraged and copies of Stone’s chapbook Fireflies And Hand Grenades (Bottlecap Press 2022) will be available for sale.



Em Tea Coffee Cup Café, 80 Oakgrove Ave, Buffalo. Free and open to the public.



Wednesday, June 3, 7:30 p.m.: CFI Literary Café Series reading hosted by poet Ryki Zuckerman and featuring poet Geoffrey Gatza. Ten additional reading slots available. Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Rd., Amherst. Free and open to the public. Free and open to the public.



About the Poet



Geoffrey Gatza is the author of the poetry collections The House of Forgetting (2012), Apollo: A Conceptual Poem (2014), A Dog Lost in the Brick City of Outlawed Trees (2018) and Self Geofferential (2025). This poem appears in his new collection The Night is a Bridge (2026), a chapbook published by Silver Locust Press.



Gatza’s poems have been published in anthologies, as well as magazines and journals including Fence, Tarpaulin Sky, The Pickled Body, Peach Mag, Tupelo Quarterly and various others. His play on Marcel Duchamp was staged in an art installation in Philadelphia and performed in New York City.



He is also an award-winning editor, publisher and poet, the driving force behind BlazeVOX, an independent press located in Buffalo, NY, specializing in innovative fictions and contemporary poetry.



Friday, June 5, 7 p.m.: Book launch, talk and signing for novelist Terez Peipins, author of Budapest Clues, her fifth novel, and third in her Dan Kiraly mystery series.

Artspace Buffalo Gallery, 1219 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14209-2150.