Our Response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Outbreak

As a precaution to help limit the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and care for our community, Just Buffalo Literary Center has postponed a number of events, and we will follow the guidance of Buffalo Public Schools in terms of Just Buffalo Writing Center programming.

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The Civil Writes Project

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 world’s foremost Black and African-American writers.

“​Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” —James Baldwin

Upcoming Civil Writes Project Events

Saturday, April 4, 2026
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Buffalo AKG Art Museum
akg babel tour credit Tricia Davis

BABEL-Inspired Tours at the AKG: Black In Blues by Imani Perry

In collaboration with Just Buffalo, the AKG is offering sixty-minute, docent-led public tours based on the themes in the acclaimed BABEL author series and the related books. Please note, the authors will not be present at the tours. Public tours based on the themes in the book Black In Blues by Imani Perry. No reservation necessary.

1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14222

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Saturday, April 11, 2026
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Buffalo AKG Art Museum
akg babel tour credit Tricia Davis

BABEL-Inspired Tours at the AKG: Black In Blues by Imani Perry

In collaboration with Just Buffalo, the AKG is offering sixty-minute, docent-led public tours based on the themes in the acclaimed BABEL author series and the related books. Please note, the authors will not be present at the tours. Public tours based on the themes in the book Black In Blues by Imani Perry. No reservation necessary.

1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14222

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Saturday, April 18, 2026
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Buffalo AKG Art Museum
akg babel tour credit Tricia Davis

BABEL-Inspired Tours at the AKG: Black In Blues by Imani Perry

In collaboration with Just Buffalo, the AKG is offering sixty-minute, docent-led public tours based on the themes in the acclaimed BABEL author series and the related books. Please note, the authors will not be present at the tours. Public tours based on the themes in the book Black In Blues by Imani Perry. No reservation necessary.

1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14222

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Thursday, April 23, 2026
7:30 pm
Kleinhans Music Hall
Babel - Imani Perry - April 23 2026 - Kleinhans Music Hall - Just Buffalo Literary Center

BABEL: Imani Perry

MacArthur genius and National Book Award winner Imani Perry unveils her new book, Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People. Blending history, art, and personal reflection, Perry illuminates the forces that have shaped American life and the Black imagination through the color blue—from indigo cloth to blues music.

Join us for a revelatory evening with one of today’s most powerful thinkers and poetic voices.

3 Symphony Circle, Buffalo, NY 14201

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Saturday, April 25, 2026
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Buffalo AKG Art Museum
akg babel tour credit Tricia Davis

BABEL-Inspired Tours at the AKG: Black In Blues by Imani Perry

In collaboration with Just Buffalo, the AKG is offering sixty-minute, docent-led public tours based on the themes in the acclaimed BABEL author series and the related books. Please note, the authors will not be present at the tours. Public tours based on the themes in the book Black In Blues by Imani Perry. No reservation necessary.

1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York 14222

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Our Sponsors

In 2026, the Civil Writes Project is generously supported by:

NYSCA Sponsor Logo - Just Buffalo Literary Center
Erie County Sponsor Logo - Just Buffalo Literary Center
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Our Partners

Just Buffalo is proud to have partnered with the following artists & organizations for the 2023 CIVIL WRITES PROJECT.

  • Black Boys Read Too
  • Buffalo Center for Arts & Technology
  • The Galactic Tribe / Wakanda Alliance
  • Gray Wills Book Club
  • Justice for Migrant Families
  • Progressive Book Club 716
  • Torn Space Theater, “Agents of Change”
  • Western New York Network of English Teachers (WNYNET)
  • Kari Winter, “Labor’s Fruit”
  • Ujima Theater & Michigan Avenue Project, “Darker Wilderness”

Special thanks to the Grant S. Golden & Deborah A. Goldman Philanthropic Fund for their extraordinary support.

The Civil Writes Project - Just Buffalo Literary Center

About The Civil Writes Project

Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Civil Writes Project finds inspiration & guidance in the writings of the world’s foremost Black authors & thinkers to grapple with racism and inequities through literature, to find pathways toward justice in the power of the written word, and to open hearts & minds as we confront our shared past & present in order to shape a more equitable future.

This community engagement initiative began in 2017 when Just Buffalo welcomed Nobel laureate Toni Morrison to our BABEL Author series, exactly fifty years to the day of Dr. Martin Luther King’s historic speech on the same stage at Kleinhans Music Hall.

The Civil Writes Project—that’s right: W-r-i-t-e—honors the visionary leaders of the Civil Rights movement & beyond while emphasizing the unique role that the literary arts play in social justice work. From the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, autobiographies of enslaved people and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech or the rousing calls-to-action by inaugural poets like Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Alexander, or Amanda Gorman, literature shapes history and inspires radical change.

Previous BABEL & CIVIL WRITES PROJECT events have featured Jesmyn Ward, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Colson Whitehead, Isabel Wilkerson, Kiese Laymon, and James McBride.

This Spring, we’re proud to welcome National Book Award winner and MacArthur Genius Imani Perry on April 23, 2026.

Get Involved with the Civil Writes Project

Writer Residency

Apply for Support

Plan an event and apply for up to $2,500 to help make it happen!

Learn More
List Your Event - Civil Writes Project - Just Buffalo Literary Center

List Your Event

Do you have an upcoming event that aligns with the Civil Writes Project? Add it to the calendar!

Submit Your Event
Brandon Lopez Fred Moten performing at the 06152024 Silo City Reading photo credit Pat Cray 500x500

Make a Donation

One of the simplest but most meaningful ways to support The Civil Writes Project and Just Buffalo’s mission is to make an online donation in whatever amount is convenient for you—one-time, monthly, or yearly. Give in honor or in memory of someone special, and we’ll send an acknowledgement.

Make a Donation

More Resources for the Civil Writes Project

Check out these additional resources to learn more.

Writer Residency

The 1619 Project

This ongoing initiative from The New York Times Magazine aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.

Visit The 1619 Project
South To America - Imani Perry - Book Cover - Just Buffalo Literary Center

Read South To America by Imani Perry

Imani Perry’s National Book Award-winning book South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation, is a narrative journey through the American South, in which Perry asserts that if we do indeed want to build a more humane future for the United States, we must center our concern below the Mason-Dixon Line.

Read the Book
National Civil Rights Museum - Civil Writes Project - Just Buffalo Literary Center

National Civil Rights Museum

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.

Visit CivilRightsMuseum.org
Ta Nehisi Coates The Case for Reparations Article - The Atlantic 2024 - Just Buffalo Literary Center

“The Case for Reparations”

Ta-Nehisi Coates’s critically acclaimed article, published in The Atlantic in 2014.

Read the Article

The Latest Civil Writes Project News

Stay up-to-date on the latest news about The Civil Writes Project.

BABEL with Kiese Laymon
Friday, April 26, 2024
BABEL with Kiese Laymon
What a beautiful ending to a great season. Thank you Kiese Laymon for your warmth, your vulnerability, your humor, and your incredible work. Thank you to our audience, both at Kleinhans and at home—the magic of BABEL is because of all of you.
Stories of the Underground Railroad Inspire Novels and Action
Tuesday, April 12, 2022
Stories of the Underground Railroad Inspire Novels and Action
Stories of the Underground Railroad are essential to remembering and learning from our past, inspiring astonishing novels and inspiring action toward a more just society. Join us on April 30 for a tour of the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center after BABEL with Colson Whitehead on April 21.
Hope Blooms From Shattered Roots: Digital Collection
Friday, August 20, 2021
Hope Blooms From Shattered Roots: Digital Collection
Hope Blooms From Shattered Roots is a digital collection of writings presented by Just Buffalo Writing Center in connection to The Civil Writes Project (2021), featuring work by young writers and artists living in WNY. Just as the journey towards justice must be a collective effort, this collection features collaborations between young artists and activists from a variety of organizations and projects around the city, and beyond. Editors: Richie Wills & Robin Jordan Book Designer: Mathieu Liu
All Civil Writes Project News
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Past Civil Writes Project Events

Take a look at our rich event history to date.

May 21, 2024
Just Buffalo Writing Center
Racial Healing Circle - My 21 2024 - Civil Writes Project - Just Buffalo Literary Center

Racial Healing Circle

Join National Federation for Just Communities for a racial healing circle in connection to Kiese Laymon’s book Heavy and his recent BABEL visit.

FOR YOUTH: 4:30 p.m.–5:45 p.m.
FOR ADULTS: 6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

468 Washington Street, 2nd Floor, Buffalo, NY 14203

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Jun 17, 2023
Just Buffalo Literary Center

Labor’s Fruit: The Story of Jeffrey Brace

Labor's Fruit  In the Age of Revolution, a man stolen from West Africa and enslaved in New England struggles to win his freedom, raise a family and forge an antislavery movement A reading of four 60-minute episodes of a docuseries script based on The Blind African Slave, or Memoirs of Boyrereau Brinch, Nicknamed Jeffrey Brace (1810) Jeffrey Brace (ca.1742-1827): African boy, enslaved sailor, Revolutionary soldier, Vermont farmer, pioneering autobiographer, and antislavery activist.

468 Washington Street, 2nd Floor, Buffalo, NY 14203

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Jun 3, 2023
Torn Space Theater

Agents of Change

Torn Space will collaborate with Lafayette International High School, The Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and Just Buffalo Literary Center to present a conference, public performance and art installation focused on local business leaders and entrepreneurs.

612 Fillmore Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14212

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More Civil Writes Project Events (2021 & Before)