The Buffalo Humanities Festival, Susan Cope at Larkin Square, and Andrew Galarneau at Art’s Cafe in Springville are among this week’s highlights.

By R.D. Pohl

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Tuesday Night Open Mic Series at the Em Tea Coffeecup Café. 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.

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 7:30 p.m.: The Screening Room Reading Series hosted by Kevin Koch and Ida Goekel. Featured reader is poet Sandy McPherson Carrubba Geary. Open mic reading slots available. The Screening Room Cinema Café, 880 Alberta Drive, Amherst. $4.

Wednesday, Sept. 17, 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.: Wednesday Night Live at Caffe Aroma featuring freestyle spoken word artist Ten Thousand (aka Marquis Burton).

About Ten Thousand: Just Buffalo teaching artist Marquis “Ten Thousand” Burton is a spoken word poet, educator and curator. Working with Shea’s Performing Arts, C.A.O.(Community Action Organization), Say Yes Buffalo and other non-profit and educational institutions he has taught young writers to discover their voice through poetry while celebrating their stories for more than a decade. He has represented Buffalo in National Poetry Slams for the past decade and has been the official team coach for 3 years. Marquis has also held the position of curator of poetry talent for the Music Is Art Festival for 6 years. Open mic hosted by Ben Brindise and Justin Karcher to follow. 957 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo. Free and open to the public.

Thursday, Sept. 18, 5:30 p.m.: Talking Leaves Books and the Larkin Square Author Series presents an evening with Susan Cope, author of Women of War: The Italian Assassins, Spies, and Couriers Who Fought the Nazis (Penguin-Random House), in conversation Buffalo-based journalist, author, and former Buffalo News reporter Maria Scrivani. Described as “the gripping, true, and untold history of the Italian anti-fascist resistance during World War II, told through the stories of four spectacularly courageous women fighters. From underground soldiers to intrepid spies, Women of War unearths the hidden history of the brave women who risked their lives in World War Two.”

Suzanne Cope is a scholar and narrative journalist, and is the author of Power Hungry: Women of the Black Panther Party and Freedom Summer and Their Fight to Feed a Movement. Her work on themes of political and social change, feminism, food, and culture has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Review of Books, Food & Wine, BBC, Washington Post, Aeon, and others. She is a professor at New York University.

Books will be available for purchase and signing from Talking Leaves Books, co-sponsor of the event. Larkin Square, 745 Seneca Street, Buffalo, NY 14210. Free and open to the public.

Thursday, Sept. 18, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.: Springville Center for the Arts presents “An Evening with Andrew Galarneau” in Art’s Café (main stage) in Springville, NY.

Andrew Galarneau will talk about the state of journalism, his thirty-five-year career in print, and his transition to online community journalism. Q&A to follow the presentation. On Dec. 1, 2023, Andrew Galarneau quit The Buffalo News, his employer of 25 years, most recently as its food editor and restaurant critic. After 35 years as a print journalist – crime and courts, investigative reporting, features, and food – he went digital, determined to help build the new community journalism models American towns need. He started fourbites.net out to see if readers would pay for a steady stream of reliable, actionable eating intelligence centered around Buffalo. He also started thebuffalohive.com, a non-profit site dedicated to growing into the community calendar Buffalo deserves. Both enterprises are based on lessons his undergraduates taught him about how today’s digital attention sphere really works.

Art’s Café, Springville Center for the Arts, 5 East Main Street, Springville, NY 14141.

Free and open to the public.

Friday, Sept. 19, 7 p.m.: An Evening with artist Nick Cave, the Keynote presentation of Fabrication, The 2025 Buffalo Humanities Festival, the flagship annual public event and series of programs sponsored by the University at Buffalo Humanities Institute.

The organizers of the Buffalo Humanities Festival are delighted to announce internationally acclaimed sculptor, textile artist, dancer, performance artist, and educator NICK CAVE as the spotlight speaker of the 2025 Buffalo Humanities Festival: Fabrication (Sept. 19-20, 2025). Join them for a special screening of Nick Cave’s video work “Gestalt” followed by an on-stage conversation with independent curator Claire Schneider (C.S. 1 Curatorial Projects) and Buffalo artists Celeste Lawson, Victoria-Idongesit Udondian, and Edreys Wajed.

About the Buffalo Humanities Festival theme Fabrication

Buffalo has a long and storied history of “fabrication” in industry and the arts. Its legendary steel and manufacturing plants, hydroelectric power grid, celebrated writers, artists, and architects, and the many working peoples of this region, speak to a complex history of fabrication and forging—of making up and making do.

The Rust Belt continues to forge new paths, both in its mills and artists’ studios. However, the idea of “fabrication,” with its dual pressure on craft and concoction, is bound by competing impulses that, on the one hand, highlight generative and inspiring creative forms and, on the other, evoke potentially dangerous machinations designed to deceive or make “forgeries” of truth for malicious ends.

Fabrication—the theme of the 2025 Buffalo Humanities Festival—arises at a moment when we find ourselves navigating stories, images, social media posts, and advertisements at a whirlwind pace, often taking great pains to determine fact from fiction, news from propaganda, and jokes from hoaxes. Though the idea of fabrication is knit into the very heart of storytelling (from spinning yarns to weaving tales), it has also now become a critical element of our everyday practices as we wrestle with misinformation, lies, and their distressing socio-political repercussions.

Festival attendance is free and open to the public, but pre-registeration is required.

Location: Asbury Hall at Babeville (341 Delaware Ave.) – doors open 6:30 p,m. with cash bar. Visit https://buffalohumanities.org/ for additional details.

Saturday, Sept. 20, 9:45 a.m to 4:15 p.m.: Buffalo Humanities Festival Fabrication Day at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library.

Join feature speakers from University at Buffalo, Buffalo State University, Daemen University, and Canisius University as they discuss and illustrate how fabrication figures in their work.

Fabrication Festival Day

Buffalo & Erie County Public Library – Central Branch (1 Lafayette Sq.) – check-in begins at 9:15 a.m.

Join the Buffalo Humanities Festival us for a full day of talks, conversations, and demonstrations as it examines FABRICATION.

Saturday Line-Up of speakers and artists:

Robert B Caldwell Jr.

Millie Chen

Alissa Ujie Diamond

Chanon Judson

Matt Kenyon

Philip Longson

Janet McNally

Ariel Nereson

Yotam Ophir

Claire Schneider

Shasti O’Leary Soudant

Victoria-Idongesit Udondian

Julio Montalvo Valentin

Christina Vega-Westhoff

Yvonne K. Widenor

For additional a complete schedule of all the presentations and their locations in the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library visit https://buffalohumanities.org/

All Buffalo Humanities Festival events are free and open to the public.

Sunday, Sept. 21, 3:30 p.m.: Pure Ink Poetry Slam, a monthly, two-round spoken word and poetry slam competition series hosted by Brandon Williamson. Pure Ink Poetry Slam is always an open slam without specific themes or requirements other than the general rules of slam. Sign up is from 3 p.m. Open mic and slam starts at 3:30. $5 for slammers, $10 for spectators. Cash prize for the winner. Visit the website www.pureinkpoetry.com for more information. Location: Em Tea Coffeecup Café, 80 Oakgrove Ave., Buffalo, NY.

Sunday, 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.: Beats, Brews and Prose, a new open mic poetry and prose series hosted by Juniper, Fawn, Rose, and Morticia on the third Sunday of each month at Eugene V. Debs Hall, 483 Peckham St. in Buffalo.