The Buffalodown, Vol. 2, Issue 37
Stories & Events for Social Connection
By Seamus Gallivan
- Recap of last week’s events
- Musings on Music: Goo Goo Dolls rapid response for FeedMore WNY
- Featured Events: 23 this week, always encouraging submissions!
- Links to the Deep End: GObike crisis, “American Crisis,” Jewish Family Services
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Congrats to all who supported Sean Ryan for Buffalo Mayor – encouraging folks to catch up on local Election Night coverage by Investigative Post (IP), and check out the scores of city jobs already posted by the incoming Ryan administration, already a sign of changing times in city hall.
And thanks to all who packed the Unitarian Universalist Church this past Wednesday for my first event in collaboration with IP, a panel and presentation on ICE and immigration in Buffalo, including the many who signed up to receive this free weekly email. IP’s Geoff Kelly covered that, too, noting, “The event drew about 300 people, the largest attendance ever for an event hosted by Investigative Post.”
Geoff gave the last words in his article to the line that stuck with me most from the spirited panel, thanks to panelist Ba Zan Lin, a Burmese refugee turned Buffalo resident serving as Community Impact Associate Vice President at the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo:
“ICE is afraid of you. Not me — you,” he told the mostly white audience. “As long as they’re still wearing masks, they’re still afraid of us.”
Another lasting impression from the gathering was the repeated response from attendees as they arrived to see a packed house – expressions of comfort, relief, solidarity, that so many people cared to show up as much as they did. Strength in numbers, y’all, much more to come!
Thanks also to photographer Damon Kimbrough for documenting the event in photos, including a few below.
As for upcoming events with IP, we’re postponing the book talk that was scheduled for next Tuesday at Fitz Books, to be rescheduled soon with more notice; our next event will be Geoff Kelly and Jim Heaney interviewing Mayor-elect Sean Ryan on Friday, December 12th, at 7pm in the Burchfield Penney Art Center, 1300 Elmwood Ave., as part of their Second Fridays free event including an exhibition opening, live music and all-ages art-making. More details to come, please stay tuned!
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Musings on Music
Goo Goo Dolls to play benefit for FeedMore WNY next week
With the Trump cult causing a nationwide food emergency by going all the way to the Supreme Court to freeze SNAP benefits critical to some 42 million Americans, caring communities are rallying in countless ways, including Buffalo’s own Goo Goo Dolls – having just played the KeyBank Center in August as part of a world tour, they’re popping up another show at the much smaller Town Ballroom, announcing yesterday:
“We hope that you can join us for a very special hometown show on Thursday, November 20th, at Town Ballroom in Buffalo to benefit FeedMore WNY and their mission to provide nutritious food, friendship, and skills training to Western New York neighbors in need. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, November 12th, at 10 am local time.”
More from Town Ballroom:
“We have made this show as bot-proof as we possibly can. In order to keep tickets out of the hands of bots & scalpers, we have enabled a few security measures (including a virtual waiting room). One major feature is that we have limited sales to a much stricter zip code radius.
“It is important to us that tickets are available for our Buffalo community. We understand some people may have recently moved here and still have an out of range billing address, as well as fans that live outside the designated radius. Don’t worry, we have a solution for you. Just give us a call at 716-852-3900 and we will find a solution.”
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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
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Links to the Deep End
Deeper dives into subjects that matter for social connection
- GObike Buffalo is calling for donations toward the legal defense and release of beloved volunteer Gary Kabeya, a Congolese asylum seeker detained by ICE while riding his bike to church, “despite being lawfully employed and in good standing with immigration authorities.”
- “Excited and ignited.” If you remember the long-gone Buffalo satire paper The Beast, for which I was a contributor and distributor for a while, you might recall a “day in the life” column by fellow distributor Anthony DiGesare called “The Pusher.” Anthony took the same approach to his current vocation, writing “A Day in the Life of a Housing Navigator” for Jewish Family Services.
- Former Buffalo News editor Margaret Sullivan, who’s since served as the public editor of The New York Times and a media columnist for The Washington Post, now writes for The Guardian US along with a blog called “American Crisis,” in which she wrote this week about the victory of Zohran Mamdani for New York Mayor, “There is a media freakout underway.”
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!
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