The Buffalodown, Volume 44
Stories & Events for Social Connection
By Seamus Gallivan
- Reconnecting after a break
- Weekly announcements until website launch!
- RIP Lydia Sobczyk
- Musings on Music: The Caz brings pizazz to live music in Buffalo
- Featured Events: 30+ over the next week, welcoming submissions!
- Listening Links: faith, volunteering, and Reconnecter 101
- Reading Rundown: if you read only one thing this week…
Welcome to the Buffalodown! Always welcoming submissions.
Thank you for tuning back in! Turns out I needed more than a two-week break. The past two years I’ve taken a full November sabbatical from work, maybe that’s the future for this new venture…
…please allow me to reintroduce myself and Reconnecter: I’m Seamus Gallivan, and Reconnecter is a labor of love that’s been in my head for seven years now. Conceived as a summer festival to bring people together and support parkway revival in the heart of Buffalo, the idea of Reconnecter evolved into a media outlet offering stories and events for social connection, after U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared an epidemic of loneliness and isolation that calls for increased investment in “the healing effects of social connection and community.”
Being a community servant and social connecter at heart, I felt called to respond to this epidemic, and expand the scope of Reconnecter. While that summer festival is still in sight, so is a website with personal stories that inspire collective action along with an array of community events. This weekly Buffalodown email, launched this year on Martin Luther King Day in honor of his formative influence on me and countless more, represents the humble beginnings of Reconnecter; in each of the coming weeks leading up to MLK Day, we’ll make event announcements leading up to the website launch – please stay tuned, submit your own stories and events to share here, and support if you’re so inspired!
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RIP Lydia Sobczyk
Lydia Sobczyk, a Buffalo native who’s been part of Reconnecter since Day One, passed over the past week. Kindness is the most recurring trait in the trail of tributes to her on social media; often among the first to show up and last to speak up, she spoke softly while caring deeply for causes from animals and bicycling to spirituality and social justice.
Slow Roll Buffalo board president Kara Kenney launched a fundraising page in Lydia’s honor, writing about their longtime volunteer: “We’re requesting donations be made to help cover the service expenses for Lydia. Your generosity in helping with service costs will allow us to properly celebrate Lydia’s life. Any contribution, no matter how small, would be greatly appreciated.
“In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Lydia’s name to the following charities that were dear to her heart. Ten Lives and Furball Farm Cat Sanctuary.”
Bottom two photos by Damon Kimbrough
Musings on Music
The Caz Brings Pizazz to Live Music in Buffalo
The Caz is Buffalo’s newest live music venue, an amazing revival of an old bank beside Cazenovia Park in South Buffalo. With a proper stage, sleek seating on many levels, a full bar and kitchen and cutting-edge lights and screens including in-house recording equipment, it’s an incredible investment by owner Jake Schneider in a unique venue that in turn, led by general manager Andre Pilette (known to many as cofounder and bassist in the band Farrow), is offering a unique lineup of concerts in search of a niche.
While Farrow makes their debut tonight with a general admission show, the full offering of events includes a “cabaret” billing with assigned seating and a “dinner and a show” package including a two-course meal. A few upcoming highlights:
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Events in the Week Ahead
Thanks to all submitting their events. Welcoming event submissions with a flyer and link to seamus@reconnecter.org.
Become a paying member to help us promote community events!
Listening Links
Recommendations welcome!
How Can We Restore Our Faith in One Another? – House Calls with Dr. Vivek Murthy – “…strategies for building relationships that lean on a positive view of humanity, and that free our minds from the negativity of social media, to re-create a society that feels better to all of us.”
Why Volunteering is Worth It – Today, Explained by Vox – “IMany of us think our individual actions can’t combat systemic problems. Vox’s Rachel Cohen and Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam explain why volunteer work, no matter how small, can make a difference for you and for us all.”
Reconnecting to Prevent Social Unrest – WBFO What’s Next – Leaving this link up for a while, as I’m honored to have been invited onto this profound program – this went real deep from the jump, please listen! Here’s how they described it: “Seamus Gallivan’s latest endeavor is Reconnecter, a ‘social connection space’ that aims to bring people together in person and online ‘by illuminating the ties that bind us.’ That means music showcases, variety shows, and media elements — all to help provide a need that he believes can help prevent social unrest. Gallivan sits down with Thomas O’Neil-White to speak about the power of reconnection and his plans for the new project.”
Reading Rundown
With intent to connect, inform, and inspire action, every edition of the Buffalodown closes with links to other sources and stories that deserve more attention. Always welcoming links to read and share at seamus@reconnecter.org.
If you read only one thing about Buffalo this week – maybe give it multiple weeks, given its 109 pages – please consider a deep dive into the inner-working of our city thanks to Kevin Connor and Our City Action Buffalo, called Who Rules Buffalo? A Field Guide to the Local Power Structure.
One note from it to serve as an answer to why this space for social connection contains political content – the top ranking under “HIGHLY-CONNECTED ORGANIZATIONS IN BUFFALO’S POWER STRUCTURE” is the Buffalo Club, which highlights in the “About Us” section of its website an excerpt from a 125th anniversary book about it, “Perhaps the most amazing fact about the Club… is not that it survived the years, but that it survived them with essentially the same declared policies which the founders had in mind. It began merely as a group for the purpose of fostering social intercourse, and it is just that today and always has been. It was founded by the leading business and professional men of Buffalo of 1866… and it still includes and always has included the leading business and professional men of Buffalo [and the Niagara Frontier].”
By my observation, social connection is central to community from neighborhoods to city hall – in turn, participating in, promoting and understanding social connection from the streets to the suites is central to Reconnecter.
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 Tuesday’s Buffalodown, and reach out with any feedback, all ideas welcome!
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