By Elmer Ploetz
Editor-in-Chief
(Image above: Jordan Celotto (l) and Mickey Harmon (r) from the Mickey Harmon Art Facebook Page)

When we started shaping The Buffalo Hive’s identity last year, we decided that our covering the Buffalo region’s arts and culture would be our calling card. It’s even in our incorporation papers.

That’s why we called Mickey Harmon when we started putting our Board of Directors together. He represented art and he was a voice for the Queer community. Boy, was he a voice for the Queer community!

When we had our first official, in-person board meeting, it was at The Good Stuff, the store Mickey co-owned at 65 Allen Street in Buffalo. He was a supporter of our mission, but he also quickly realized that being on the board of an arts and culture media start-up was going to take more time than he had available on top of his already way too stuffed schedule, so he graciously stepped down.

Still some of us were privileged to get to know him then and others already had ongoing friendships and relationships with Mickey.

That’s why it was so shocking to hear today that we lost Mickey and his partner, Jordan Celotto, in an incomprehensible act of violence yesterday (March 4). We won’t go into details here; if you feel the need, you can check out Channel 4’s news coverage.

Regardless of the details, the loss of Mickey Harmon and Jordan Celotto (a DJ and artist in his own right) is simply a tragedy for the community in far too many ways.

“Mickey was a fearless artist and passionate about the Buffalo community,” said Buffalo Hive Board President David Lotempio. “He put his passions into action by creating his shop and by advocating for local arts and culture.  We lost a cherished friend and ally.”

For the Queer community, they were living representations of what life could be like.

As Buffalo City Councilman Mitch Nowakowski said during a press conference today (March 5), “Mickey and Jordan were unapologetically who they were. They did not care if they were called flamboyant or if they were called a derogatory term. Those are the people that make this world a better and more inclusive and open society. That’s who they were as people.”

Nowakowski represents Allentown as part of his Fillmore District and was a friend of both men, who worked to help elect him as one of the first openly gay council members in Buffalo history.

“I refuse to allow Mickey and Jordan’s memory to be attached to these heinous crimes. I want everybody to know that these people were artists, were people of the Allentown community who made it better, who made things happen, who worked with me ever since I got into office,” Nowakowski said. “When you look and see Allentown , its vibrancy, its festivals, its artwork, think of them, because that is who they are. They do not deserve to have their legacy attached with the heinous crime that happened yesterday.”

Nowakowski said that Jordan shouldn’t be forgotten, although he might have expected to be.

“Jordan was a sweet soul who was somebody who Mickey met and they were able to find love within each other,” he said. “I had this thought that Jordan would be laughing about everybody talking about Mickey because he was perfectly fine with Mickey being the big personality he was.”

But as important as Mickey (by the way, we decided to dispense with the journalistic convention of using last names with Mickey and Jordan because it seemed nobody ever called them by their last names) was in the Queer community with his art and activism just general presence, he was influential beyond it.

He was a prolific artist, creating drawings and prints of countless significant Buffalo buildings and homes.

Just 40 years old, he had been a member of the Allentown Association Board of Directors for the past eight years, chairing and organizing the First Friday events in Allentown.

And when the sidewalks weren’t being cleared of snow during storms late last year, he helped put together a volunteer snow shoveling organization for the Allentown Association.

Mickey and Jordan will be missed.