Each Spring, Just Buffalo presents THE CIVIL WRITES PROJECT with a series of interconnected community events that open conversations, encourage reading and writing, and invite widespread community participation around BABEL visits from the worldโs foremost Black and African American writers.
NOTHING CURRENTLY SCHEDULED. Check back later for upcoming events.
Just Buffalo Literary Centerโs Civil Writes Project is a large-scale community engagement project that began in 2017 with a series of interconnected literary arts programs culminating in Toni Morrisonโs appearance at Just Buffaloโs BABEL series exactly fifty years to the day after Dr. Martin Luther Kingโs historic speech on the same stage at Kleinhans Music Hall. Previous BABEL / CIVIL WRITES PROJECT presentations have featured Jesmyn Ward, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Colson Whitehead, and Isabel Wilkerson.
Buffalo continues to be at a pivotal moment in its historyโbenefiting from an exciting renaissance even as the city grapples with persistent racial disparities. As the Civil Writes Project continues, our hope is to see even more engagement throughout WNY and beyond by opening conversations, encouraging reading and writing, and inviting widespread community participation around BABEL visits from the worldโs foremost Black & African American writers.
As James Baldwin wrote, โโNot everything that can be faced, can be changed. But nothing can be changed if it cannot be faced.โ
Plan an event and apply for up to $2,500 to help make it happen! Applications are due on Friday, December 15, 2023 at 5:00 pm for programs occurring April through June 2024.
Reading groups, writing workshops, community events, and BABEL featuring Kiese Laymon.
Have an upcoming event that aligns with the Civil Writes Project? Add it to the calendar!
This ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine aims to reframe the countryโs history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.
One of the nation’s premier heritage and cultural museums celebrated #MLK50 in 2018, continuing their mission to share the culture and lessons from the American Civil Rights Movement.
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s critically acclaimed article, published in The Atlantic in 2014.