Stories & Events for Social Connection

By Seamus Gallivan

• Ralph Wilson Park Community Update tonight!
• Musings on Music: Benefit for the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation
• Featured Events: 20 this week, encouraging submissions!
• Listening Links: Another nod to Ezra Klein

Welcome to the Buffalodown, thank you for your attention!

All welcome to attend to-NIGHT’s Ralph Wilson Park Community Update!

From Ralph Wilson Park Conservancy director Katie Campos:

“As we gear up for a phased re-opening of Ralph Wilson Park next summer, we are buzzing. Work on the shoreline is full speed ahead, trees are being planted and mulch is being sprayed (for real! video in our construction update!).

  “And, we are getting creative with finding ways to get you down to the park with fun, family friendly events that you will remember forever.

“Join us [tonight] to learn more about how you can be a part of Ralph Wilson Park’s community-driven transformation.”

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Musings on Music

Memorial Day with the Sportsmen’s Americana Music Foundation

We who have witnessed the expansion of the Sportsmen’s Tavern from neighborhood dive to live music destination; from one floor to two, with a balcony and absorbed alley and quadrupled capacity; from one venue to three, with The Cave behind and Sportsmen’s Park in between; from a humble honky tonk to a landmark with a fledging music foundation; we generally answer the call from the Hall family to show up and support it all, for all it’s provided us with music and community.

Our next big opportunity is this coming Monday, Memorial Day, with another homecoming for Buffalo’s own ambassador of song, Willie Nile, and local support from luminaries Ten Cent Howl, Leroy Townes, and the beloved Love Supreme School of Music. Sportsmen’s regulars know that holidays like Memorial Day have extra meaning for Marine and patriarch Dwane Hall, and so we’ll salute together on their outdoor stage – and history suggests that there’ll be news about further expansion, seems a safe bet! As long as we keep supporting…

…below, enjoy Willie on Late Night with David Letterman in 1991 with one of his classic big-hearted earworms, as well as a clip I caught last year from Leroy Townes.

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Events in the Week Ahead

Thanks to all who’ve submitted their events! Welcoming submissions with a flyer and link to seamus@reconnecter.org.

Visit and subscribe to The Buffalo Hive for the comprehensive community events calendar we’ve been calling for!

Also from Slow Roll:

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Listening Links

I’ve been on an Ezra Klein kick over the past week, catching up on past episodes, considering it my favorite way of keeping up with the state of our society, through deep dives with pointed questions. While anything beyond a week in the past is for New York Times subscribers only, this show makes for most of my NYT consumption and feels well worth the small price.

Abundance and the Left – “I found this conversation wonderfully clarifying — both in the places it revealed agreement, and perhaps even more in the places it revealed difference.”

Ross Douthat on Trump, Mysticism and Psychedelics – “I have no earthly idea how to describe this conversation. It’s about religion and belief – at this moment in our politics, and in our lives more generally.”

The Very American Roots of Trumpism – “After last week’s episode, ‘The Emergency Is Here,’ we got a lot of emails. And the most common reply was: You really think we’ll have midterm elections in 2026? Isn’t that naïve?

“I think we will have midterms. But one reason I think so many people are skeptical of that is they’re working with comparisons to other places: Mussolini’s Italy, Putin’s Russia, Pinochet’s Chile.

“But we don’t need to look abroad for parallels; it has happened here.”

  The Emergency is Here – “The president of the United States is disappearing people to a Salvadoran prison for terrorists: a prison built for disappearance, a prison where there is no education or remediation or recreation, a prison where the only way out, according to El Salvador’s justice minister, is in a coffin.

“The president says he wants to send ‘homegrown’ Americans there next.

“This is the emergency. Like it or not, it’s here.”

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Thank YOU for reading this far and being part of it all – extra thanks to everyone supporting this work with a membership at www.reconnecter.org!

Please share with friends to sign up for next week’s Buffalodown, and reach out with any feedback, all ideas welcome!