Tuesday, May 13, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Tuesday Night Open Mic Series at the Em Tea Coffeecup Café guest hosted by the The 2025 Pure Ink Slam Team. This is the team’s first feature performance before heading to The 2025 Southern Fried Regional Poetry Slam being hosted in Knoxville, TN this year. 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, May 13, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Tuesdays at Cabernet, monthly open mic poetry and prose reading series hosted by Sinead Tyrone. Cabernet’s Wine Café , 9 N. Ellicott St., Williamsville.

Wednesday, May 14, 9 p.m.: Poetry Night at Caffe Aroma, biweekly open mic reading series hosted by Ben Brindise and Justin Karcher. 957 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo. Free and open to the public.

Thursday, May 15, 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.: The Buffalo History Museum and AAARIA present One Race: The Human Race, an event that aims to promote cultural unity & HEAL (Human Equality & Access Leadership). The program will honor our beloved community pillars lost in the 5/14 massacre at Tops Market on Jefferson Ave., featuring words from Emmy Award Winning former City of Buffalo Poet Laureate Jillian Hanesworth and as the Keynote Speaker, African Historian/Best Selling Author/Tedx Speaker, Emmanuel Kulu, Jr. The event will be hosted by Shantelle Patton of “That Brown Bag.”

The Social construct of “race” has shaped Western society and the world. Many say race has led to racism, violence, self-hate, white supremacy, segregation, redlining, blockbusting, apartheid, miseducation, unfair labor practice, racial disparities, and more. This event embraces our differences and celebrates what brings us together as the Human race. Don’t miss out on this educational opportunity for change and connect with others to foster a sense of community.

The Buffalo History Museum, 1 Museum Court Buffalo, NY. Tickets are available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/one-race-the-human-race-tickets-1302435181689?aff=oddtdtcreator.

Thursday, May 15, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Buffalo Corner Reading Series featuring an open community reading in belated appreciation of National Poetry Month. This will be a hybrid event: in person, and simulcast via Zoom. Congregation Shir Shalom, 4660 Sheridan Drive in Amherst. Visit shirshalombuffalo.org for more information and the Zoom link to this free event.

Friday, May 16, 6 p.m.: Fourth Friday Reading Series at Dog Ears Books. This month’s featured reader is poet Celeste Lawson. Additional reading slots available. Dog Ears Bookstore and Cafe, 688 Abbott Road, 2nd floor, in Buffalo. Admission to the event is $5. Proceeds benefit the Dog Ears Bookstore, a 501 c (3) not-for-profit organization.

Friday, May 16, 6:30 p.m: Buffalo book launch event for Aidan Ryan’s I Am Here You Are Not I Love You: Andrew Topolski, Cindy Suffoletto, and Their Life in the Arts.

Buffalo-based author, filmmaker, and publisher Aidan Ryan will celebrate the launch of his book I Am Here You Are Not I Love You: Andrew Topolski, Cindy Suffoletto, and Their Life in the Arts (Univ. of Iowa Press) with a reading and book signing at Hallwalls. The event will feature a one-night only exhibition of works from the Buffalo-born visual artists Andrew Topolski and Cindy Suffoletto, readings and remarks, and a conversation between Ryan and two special guests: the essayist, translator, and and poet Laura Marris and the artist Matt Kenyon.

Blending the emotional depth of memoir with the breadth of biography, I Am Here You Are Not I Love You attempts to piece together clues from the lives and art of Aidan Ryan’s late uncle and aunt, Buffalo’s Andrew Topolski and Cindy Suffoletto.

The book presents a critical reexamination of Andrew Topolski, an overlooked luminary of intermedia, postminimalism, and the Pictures Generation. In repositioning Topolski’s legacy and vast body of work, Ryan makes compelling findings about the interplay of talent, luck, and community support in the making or breaking of artistic careers. At the same time, the story shares the significant and never-before-seen body of work by Cindy Suffoletto, a talented and inventive artist little shown and never cataloged during her short life. Ultimately, Ryan argues that the time is right for both to take up a privileged place among the great artists of their generation.

Books will be available for signing from Talking Leaves Books. The Cinema at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, 341 Delaware Ave., Buffalo. Free and open to the public.

Saturday, May 17, Noon to 2 p.m.: Poetry afternoons at Bella Dulce Café hosted by Melissa Liberatore. This month’s featured reader is ryki zuckerman with additional slots for open readers. 2938 Delaware Ave, Kenmore, NY. Free and open to the public.

Saturday, May 17, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Brandel France de Bravo will read poems from her new collection Locomotive Cathedral at Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen Street in Buffalo in a program organized and sponsored by Buffalo businessman and International House operator Mark Supples and Amy Taylor.

To round out the evening The Paul La Duca Quartet will be performing.
Paul La Duca – Bass
Dave Schiavone – Saxophone
George Kane – Guitar
Rich Thompson – Drums

The program will also feature live music. Admission is free.

Brandel France de Bravo is a poet, essayist, editor, translator, compassion meditation instructor, and public health advocate who has been working on healthcare issues internationally and in the U.S. for nearly 30 years. She holds a Master’s in Public Health from Columbia University and a Master’s in Fine Arts in creative writing from Warren Wilson College.

She is the author of the poetry collections Locomotive Cathedral (University of Nebraska Press, 2025), Provenance (Washington Writer’s House, 2008), and the chapbook Mother , Loose (Accents Publishing, 2015). Brandel is the editor of the bilingual anthology Mexican Poetry Today: 20/20 Voices.

Her poems and essays have appeared in Best American Poetry 2024, Alaska Quarterly Review, the Cincinnati Review, Copper Nickel, The Georgia Review, Gulf Coast, Poet Lore, the Seneca Review, Diode, Salamander, Southern Humanities Review, Green Mountains Review and elsewhere. Brandel teaches a meditation program she developed at Stanford University called Compassion Cultivation Training.

She has served on the Board of PEN Mexico for three years and currently serves on the Board of the National Center for Health Research. She received artist fellowships from the Hermitage Artist Retreat, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), and the Washington, D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.