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.

Learn More

News

We can’t wait to welcome you on Thursday, March 30th, for Just Buffalo Literary Center’s BABEL series featuring Anthony Doerr. Below, you’ll find FAQs for the event—whether you plan to attend in-person or virtually.

For the past year, JBWC writers, along with young artists from Buffalo Center for Art and Technology, Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center and the Buffalo Public Schools, have been taking part in a community arts collaboration inspired by artist LeRoi Johnson’s exhibit currently on view at Burchfield Penney Art Center, LeRoi: Living in Color.

Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Board of Directors announced today a planned leadership transition which will take place as of July 1st, 2023. Current Executive Director Laurie Dean Torrell will retire after 20 years of service, with Artistic & Associate Executive Director Barbara Cole assuming the role of Executive Director in addition to her duties as Artistic Director—ushering in a new era of community-building work.

A conversation about writing, disability studies, and the politics of legibility with Youth Fellow Angelina Tang & project mentor Jessica Lowell Mason I want you, dear reader, to better understand those who perceive the world differently from you, and kindly be able to ask them, “So, what do you think?” - Angelina Tang “Is the way this narrative is constructed helping or harming those within the community being represented?” This is a question I think we, as writers, especially of fiction but within any genre, should be asking ourselves. - Jessica Lowell Mason

Presenting an excerpt of Autumn Flowers written by 2022 JBWC Youth Fellow Angelina Tang. Autumn Flowers is a story about being human. It is the journey of a girl who rises above her suffering and embraces herself, learning to accept her past and future; at the same time, it is an exploration of Chinese culture, flower language, and the effects of a schizophrenia diagnosis.

Just Buffalo’s Communications Coordinator will work with program staff and contracted professionals to strategically and effectively plan and execute the organization’s audience-facing communications—web copy, e-newsletters, social media posts, press releases and media advisories, advertising, outreach letters, and communication campaigns—to meet organizational goals and reach our diverse audiences with a warm, consistent tone.

On November 11, 2022 the BABEL season continued at Kleinhans Music Hall with the brilliant author & journalist Omar El Akkad. Thank you to everyone who came out and made the evening so special. Big thank you to El Akkad who left us in awe over the powerful and unsettling stories he shared of the human experience. Photographs by Pat Cray and Nancy J. Parisi

Omar El Akkad is an Egyptian-born author and journalist. He has reported on current events in places all over the world, including Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan. This Thursday, November 10th, he will be participating in the BABEL author series at Kleinhans Music Hall. His featured book, What Strange Paradise, tells the story of 9-year-old Amir, an immigrant boy who washed up on a small island after the overcrowded ship he left home on tragically sank. Through his novel, El Akkad depicts the unfortunate harshness of the immigrant process, and the world at large, through the eyes of a child. Below is a list of local organizations that strive to make the immigrant experience in WNY a little easier.