Author: Andrew Delo “The tenor part is severely tainted.” That was the note that Don Jenczka gave to me, during a 1999 vocal brush-up rehearsal for A USO Canteen Christmas at Artpark. I was the only tenor. He knew that I was just as much the perfectionist he was, and I simply couldn’t go on until I fixed it. He plunked, I sang. He pushed me to do better, chuckling at how unnecessarily personally I took his note. In the hours after Don’s tragic passing, Facebook was flooded with hundreds and hundreds of reflections from actors, singers, dancers, directors, and everything…
Author: BRo Guest Authors
BRo Guest Authors
It’s not unusual for authors to come and go. Guest authors range from collegiate interns to writers who will be contributing for a short stint of time. Guest authors might also have a series in mind. Authors are encouraged to submit their ideas to BRO (Buffalo Rising Online), upon which time we will work with the writer towards a productive end.
Author: Ryan Miller Western New York has done a tremendous job supporting the loved ones of the victims as well as the Jefferson Avenue community at large over the past ten days. This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows anything about this community. We have a long history here of coming together during times of need. After all, we are the “City of Good Neighbors,” right? The need this time, however, is different. Sadly, it is not new either. This wasn’t a snowstorm. This wasn’t some generalized process that broadly affected the people of our region. This…
Author: Dana Elise Where do I want to go in my Afro future? If I could (and I can), I’d travel to the Black Whole, and go on a sonic journey into the unknown. And that unknown is Black Whole, a five-piece, Afro-futuristic ensemble led by pianist Walter Kemp 3. Unlike his father’s classically-gospel Carnegie Hall acclaim, Kemp unleashes the same instrument and leads an equally creative cadre of music-making marvels; namely GRAMMY Award-winning improvisational violinist Scott Tixier, multi-reed maverick Brent Birckhead, bass phenom Rishon Odel, and Allan Mednard, a rock-solid percussive fixture with a keen ear for giving this…
Author: Jalonda Hill Mobility and urban design are essential to our freedom. They impact our ability to access the essential resources that we need. While mobility and urban design can be liberating, for people of color, mobility and our urban spaces have been a source of anxiety, police and traffic violence, and extraction. Many of the experiences that Black folks endure while traveling are a result of racist urban planning and transportation policies like redlining and urban renewal. These policies shaped our physical environments and also impacted how and where we traveled and moved. For example, Robert Moses, a white…
Author: Lily Zalon Wild Pink begins its northeastern tour in Buffalo this Thursday, April 21, at the Town Ballroom, with local bands Rue and Timothy Alice & the Dead Star Band opening the show at the more intimate Oxford Pennant Stage. Wild Pink’s heartland indie rock, influenced by Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen, feels like a cloudy, humid day in Florida – frontman John Ross’s home state – trying hard to rain. Ross is joined by Buffalo native Dan Keegan on drums and bassist Arden Yonkers, who together also compose the rhythm section of opening band Rue. Rue The overlap…
Interview by GObike Buffalo Tim White is a local bike courier. He delivers fresh produce via cargo bike for a local business called FreshFix. He also rides for Queen City Couriers, a new local startup courier company. Tim is proof that courier services can be done and are in demand in Buffalo. We sat down with him to get a little insight into what it’s like to do business on a bike. GB: Tell me a little about yourself. Tim: I came to Buffalo for a degree in photography at UB. Then traveled the country for about a year and then ended…
Author: Christina Abt In 1984, Willie Hutch Jones was dedicated to finding a way to combine his Professional NBA experience with the Los Angeles Lakers and his desire to advance the knowledge and self-esteem of children and young adults in his Buffalo hometown. He achieved that goal by creating the Willie Hutch Jones Educational & Sports Program (WHJESP,) providing youth of all racial and socio-economic backgrounds with strong positive influences and special training in sports and educational areas. Now, almost four decades and 10,000 kids later, Jones is launching his organization’s 38th summer season on Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Annual Jackie Robinson…
This is the continuation of the “Off Broadway” article that was posted this past December. These are the memories of Alex Ramsey, who grew up on the city’s East Side. It is interesting to note that he has been living in Texas since 1977, but that his fondest memories are from his youth. Alex was born in 1956. “The cohesiveness of the neighborhood itself made it a truly special time and place to grow up in.” Hutch-Tech class of ’74 Trying to keep my entries somewhat chronological, by 1973, bicycles were being replaced with cars, by my group of friends.…
Author: Erik Brady This, at last, is what normal feels like. Two full-throated crowds thrilled to the men’s NCAA basketball tournament at KeyBank Center on Thursday. And the sound and fury animated the arena in a way that postseason college hoops hadn’t felt like in forever. The men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments got canceled in 2020 — and, for many of us, that was the moment when we came to understand the routine-altering nature of “the coronavirus,” as we called it then. Last year, when the tournaments returned, they were played in a “bubble,” that euphemism for the antiseptic nature…
This is the continuation of the “Off Broadway” article that was posted this past December. These are the memories of Alex Ramsey, who grew up on the city’s East Side. It is interesting to note that he has been living in Texas since 1977, but that his fondest memories are from his youth. Alex was born in 1956. “The cohesiveness of the neighborhood itself made it a truly special time and place to grow up in.” When “my guys” and I got a little older, (12, 13 or so), we began to expand our horizons a bit. We pushed the…