Buffalo Literature: Writing events will build off BABEL speaker Imani Perry book

By Lee Ames

The act of writing is a powerful tool that has continuously brought people together throughout history. 

Now with so much going on in our political world, it’s more important than ever to harness our unique identities and share our lived experiences through art. This is exactly what Hy Carrel and the founders of The Moral Imperative are striving to do as they go into their third year of hosting the event. 

The Moral Imperative was started through Community Canvases, a Western New York arts nonprofit founded in 2013 by a group of friends with the intention to come together and make art accessible to the greater public.  

The Moral Imperative is a series of writing events where people are welcomed to read the works of multiple authors, including Imani Perry’s book Black in Blues and Nikki Giovanni’s poetry and prose collection Make Me Rain. Together, the group will be given a space to open up about their experiences.

Following a rolling deadline of Friday, March 27, at 9 p.m., those interested in participating will embark on a series of meetings to read and reflect on their personal experiences as they connect to Perry’s book. 

Then, together, they will attend Perry’s April 23 BABEL talk at Kleinhans Music Hall and participate in the Kind Fools’ WRITE ON, which is a multiple-session writing workshop created by Robert-Harry Rovin in 2003. 

These free writing sessions and the BABEL talk (ticket included in the program) are designed to cultivate truthful work and help participants write about when they, as individuals, have felt a moral imperative, with the end goal of publishing those writings in a book for others to read and experience. 

The project is open to the general public. Community Canvases is looking for people who want to be a part of a group of creatives as they begin a journey of writing, talking,and publishing a book together as a collective. Whether a novice or seasoned professional, all are welcome. 

Organized by Kamau R.E. Fields, Hy Carrel, Dr. Steve Peraza, Samuel Floyd and Chanda O’Donnell de Ramirez, the project is done in collaboration with Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Civil Writes Project and Buffalo Latino Village Press. These events are meant to bring together individuals of different backgrounds and highlight what it is that brings us together as a people through literary events. 

Carrel said, “We’ll have a discussion where we come together with each other. We’ll attend the BABEL talk and hear Imani Perry, and then we’ll come together for opportunities to write, perhaps in the style of Nikki Giovanni, but inspired by passages from each of these books. 

“But the idea is that these concepts we are kind of allowing to percolate within ourselves and within this community of writers over the course of April and May …  we’ll see that in some of the writing about these topics and the idea of a moral imperative show up in their lives. And then we’ll publish a book based on it. But a lot of it is about the kind of relationships people build with each other through this process.”

The objective is to meet in this moment when so much fear and uncertainty are taking over our nation, to be true within ourselves and encourage people to feel and write about those things that are so commonly seen as difficult to share. 

Within a trusting environment, participants will be given the chance to be authentically a part of something bigger than themself and share vulnerably and collaboratively in a creative, safe space meant to highlight the diversity of the Buffalo area. 

“Our goal with this program is through reading these books and these discussions, to encourage people to really develop more confidence in what they truly know,” Carrel said, “and to be able to articulate that through writing and poetry … to be encouraged by each other so that we individually and collectively can try to meet this moment with honesty and openness and conviction.” 

This program is your chance to find and heal a part of yourself you didn’t know needed healing, organizers hope. Through two months of progressive collaboration and discussion, they feel participants will be changed when they step out of the other side of this program as a published author.

As they prepare to do this project for the third time, The Moral Imperative intends to continue breaking down barriers.

Here is the link to apply: The Moral Imperative – Application.

Event Schedule: 

• Tuesday, March 31, 6-7:30 p.m. Welcome Gathering for core group (books distributed)
• Tuesday, April 14, 6-8 p.m. Book Discussion
• Thursday, April 23, 7-10 p.m. Imani Perry’s BABEL talk (complimentary admission for core group)
• Tuesday, April 28, 6-8:30 p.m. WRITE ON intuitive writing group 
• Tuesday, May 5, 6-8:30 p.m. WRITE ON intuitive writing group 
• Tuesday, May 12, 6-8:30 p.m. WRITE ON intuitive writing group 
• Tuesday, May 26, 6-8:30 p.m. WRITE ON intuitive writing group 
• Friday, June 5, 9 p.m. Deadline to submit writings 
• Saturday, July 18, 1-3 p.m. Celebration/Presentation of publication of writings by core group

Community Canvases also does other events, such as Community Swing (partnered dancing) every Wednesday evening, the Western NY Trash Mob (their Earth Day event is taking place April 22-26) and regular WRITE ON! workshops (once a month).

Lee Ames is a senior at SUNY Fredonia and an intern with The Buffalo Hive.