Tuesday, April 29, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Tuesday Night Open Mic Series at the Em Tea Coffeecup Café hosted by poet Liz Mariani. All are welcome whether new to poetry or a long-time member of the community. 80 Oakgrove Ave., Buffalo, NY. Free and open to the public.

Tuesday, April 29, 7 p.m.: Adam Zyglis, Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist for The Buffalo News joins fellow Canisius University graduates and working journalists Natalie Faas and Emyle Watkins for an important discussion on the First Amendment, Freedom of Speech and the Current State of the Free Press in America. 6 p.m. reception, 7 p.m. lecture. Montante Cultural Center, Canisius University, 2001 Main St., Buffalo. Free and open to the public.

Tuesday, April 29, 7:30 p.m.: Buffalo-Lille [France] Speaker Series featuring Buffalo-based author, restaurateur, jazz aficionado and entrepreneur Dr. Mark Goldman. Rockwell Hall, room 204. Buffalo State University, 1300 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo. Free and open to the public.

Wednesday, April 30, 8 p.m.: Just Buffalo Literary Center BABEL Series Lecture by and discussion with bestselling author, musician, and screenwriter James McBride.

James McBride’s landmark 1995 memoir, The Color of Water, rested on the NYT bestseller list for two years and explored McBride’s search for identity as the son of a white Jewish woman and a black man. It is considered an American classic and is read in schools and universities across the United States. His debut novel, Miracle at St. Anna (2003), was adapted into a major motion picture, directed by American film icon Spike Lee. It was released by Disney/Touchstone in September 2008. James wrote the script for Miracle at St. Anna and co-wrote Spike Lee’s 2012 Red Hook Summer. His novel, Song Yet Sung, was released in paperback in January 2009. His novel The Good Lord Bird about American revolutionary John Brown was the winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, and has been adapted by Ethan Hawke and Jason Blum into a Showtime series bearing the same name. His 2020 novel Deacon King Kong tells the story of a 1969 shooting in Brooklyn and the strange intersections of the lives of the characters involved in the shooting. Deacon King Kong was a NYT bestseller, winner of the National Book Award, and named a favorite book of the year by both Oprah Winfrey and President Barack Obama.

McBride’s latest novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (2023), tells the story of small-town secrets and the people who keep them. McBride shows us that even in dark times, it is love and community—heaven and earth—that sustain us. The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store was a runaway NYT bestseller and was named Best Book of the Year by NPR, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, TIME Magazine, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

McBride is also a former staff writer for The Boston Globe, People Magazine, and The Washington Post. His work has appeared in Essence, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. His April 2007 National Geographic story entitled “Hip Hop Planet” is considered a respected treatise on African American music and culture.

McBride toured as a saxophonist sideman with jazz legend Jimmy Scott, among others. He has also written songs (music and lyrics) for Anita Baker, Grover Washington Jr., Purafe, Gary Burton, and even for the PBS television character “Barney.” (He did not write the “I Love You” song for “Barney,” but wishes he did.) He received the Stephen Sondheim Award and the Richard Rodgers Foundation Horizon Award for his musical Bo-Bos, co-written with playwright Ed Shockley. His 2003 “Riffin’ and Pontificatin’” Musical Tour was captured in a nationally televised Comcast documentary. He has been featured on national radio and television in America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. He often does his readings accompanied by a band.

McBride is a native New Yorker and a graduate of New York City public schools. He studied composition at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, and received his Masters in Journalism from Columbia University in New York at age 22. He holds several honorary doctorates and is currently a Distinguished Writer in Residence at New York University.

In his talk and conversation with Just Buffalo Artistic Director Barbara Cole, McBride will discuss The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and how his lifelong immersion in music has helped to shape his writing.

Kleinhans Music Hall, 3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo. $40.
Visit https://www.justbuffalo.org/ for tickets to the event, which also include an online livestreaming option.

Saturday, May 3, 3 p.m.: Adrian Karatnycky, journalist, nonresident senior fellow with Atlantic Council’s Eurasian Center and author of Battleground Ukraine: From Independence to the War with Russia (Yale University Press, 2024) speaks about Ukraine’s history and future.

Dnipro Ukrainian Cultural Center. 562 Genesee St., Buffalo, NY 14204. Free and open o the public.