Just Buffalo Fall 2012 Newsletter

NEWS FROM JUST BUFFALO LITERARY CENTER

FALL

2011

CELEBRATING OUR LITERARY LEGACY

A Father’s Love of Literature

JUST BUFFALO BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mary Farallo, President Paul Battaglia, Vice President Thomas F. Hewner, Treasurer Janet Kaye, Secretary

by Hadley Horrigan On a July 2009 visit to Pages bookstore in Toronto, the store’s “aroma” nearly knocked me down.

Russell Pawlak

The scent was innocuous enough—the common odor shared by all independent bookstores. But on that particular summer day, its familiarity pressed play on a snapshot reel of countless moments I’d spent with my dad (and his book list) in Pages, Talking Leaves, the Strand, the Regulator, Coliseum Books…

of discomfort and self-conscious of his appearance, he refused to miss a Spring 2009 Just Buffalo Babel event. It was his last nighttime outing. After his death, friends from Just Buffalo met me at his apartment, and connected me with angels from Rust Belt Books who swooped in to find good homes for some of his book collection.

I left the store knowing that books would always be my unbreakable link to my father— his legacy.

Two months after losing my dad, I became a mother. My daughter’s quiet infancy gave me time to read, and I read my dad’s books.

Passages he’d bracketed or asterisked helped remind me of my father alive and well, reacting to what he’d just read: a belly laugh that could besiege him, and force one hand to his heart and the other into a raised finger signaling “give me a minute;” his eyes, so sensitive, moved by something beautiful, inhumane or all-too-human, and the curled finger that would rest on his lips just before a heavy sigh.

One month later, my dad, Russell Pawlak, was moved from an ICU bed to one in his living room. Confounded by his imminent and premature death, the only thing those who loved him most knew to do was to get him home. Should he become lucid, we wanted him to find himself surrounded by his thousands of beloved books.

Their physicality, organization and scent would comfort him, we hoped. And remind him of the intellectual curiosity that pushed him to lead a culturally rich, full life. He died on August 8, 2009.

Buffalo’s “book community” was important to my dad. He counted local booksellers and the clerks they employed as his friends, relished the talent Just Buffalo’s Babel series brought to Buffalo, supported our libraries and enjoyed the readings sponsored by local colleges.

I’ve become increasingly grateful for it, too. During most of my dad’s 10-month illness, Talking Leaves was the only place he’d venture. Also, though in a great deal

My own book collection helps me feel close with my dad, too. When I miss him most, I need only open the front cover of one of the more than sixty books he inscribed to me over the years. Seeing his handwriting, his turn of phrase, places him momentarily beside me.

Hadley Horrigan had her second child Henry on October 20th, and regretted missing Amos Oz at Babel. Her copy of Oz’s Panther in the Basement is, however, signed by the author, thanks to her dad.

Hadley is a former Associated Press reporter, and has worked in Buffalo in public and government relations. She is a graduate of Duke University. Her daughter’s copy of A Light in the Attic includes the following inscription: 11.19.2009, To my Frances on the occasion of your very first trip to Talking Leaves. Your Loving Mother

Sharon Amos Thomas G. Aurelio James Bachwitz Elena Cala Miriam C. Dow Geri Grossman Jeffrey Hirshberg Kevin O’Leary Elizabeth Pascal Bryan Roland Anne Y. Taylor Franca Trincia Timothy J. Vukelic STAFF Executive Director Laurie Dean Torrell Associate & Artistic Director Michael Kelleher Education Director Barbara Cole, Ph.D. Finance Director Kristen Pope Executive Assistant Lynda Kaszubski Program & Volunteer Coord.

Hallie Winter Grantwriter Kathleen Kearnan Just Buffalo Literary Center is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and your donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. For copies of our financial information, or information about any of our programs, please contact us at (716) 832.5400 or visit the website www.justbuffalo.org

Creating and strengthening communities through the literary arts.

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DECEMBER 2 2011 / 8pm

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

NAOMI SHIHAB NYE Mary E. Farallo Board President

KLEINHANS MUSIC HALL $10 Students $35 General Admission $100 Patron Reserved (includes author reception)

SPECIAL

Use your B&ECPL library card to purchase general admission tickets for only $25

PURCHASE ONLINE AT JUSTBUFFALO.ORG/BABEL PURCHASE BY PHONE AT 716.832.5400

Sustaining Support: The Literary Leadership Circle

This past year many WNY cultural and community-based organizations—including Just Buffalo Literary Center—experienced significant cuts in government funding.

An organization often faces challenges with sustaining its identity and fiscal stability under such circumstances. Yet, as a testament to its 36 successful years of bringing acclaimed authors, innovative education programs, and community outreach to WNY, your literary center did not sit quietly and worry about its future.

Based upon the creative and insightful thinking of current and past Just Buffalo board members, the concept of the Literary Leadership Circle was developed.

The Literary Leadership Circle provides an avenue for recognizing our most loyal and generous donors who have consistently demonstrated their commitment to fostering the awareness, participation, and continued support of the literary arts. These literary leaders have made an inspiring commitment in joining the Literary Leadership Circle, pledging a gift of $5,000 or more payable over three years in support of Just Buffalo.

We recognize that each and every member of the Just Buffalo Literary Center community is vital to our existence. The time, commitment, and support provided by our membership is truly valued and is key to our mission of creating and strengthening WNY communities through the literary arts.

The Literary Leadership Circle will further strengthen our ability to remain a strong, innovative and enduring resource for this region. To thank and recognize our Literary Leadership Circle members, we will invite them to participate in an exclusive dinner with Naomi Shihab Nye on December 1st.

We currently have 8 members. Our goal is to have twelve people (and their guests) seated at the table with Ms. Nye. This tradition of a special dinner will continue each year.

I ask you to consider the opportunity to become our next Literary Leader. If a commitment of this kind is not possible at this time, please keep it in mind for the future.

By joining me in this group, your support will go a long way to ensuring that Just Buffalo will be able to continue providing the means of recognition for Buffalo and WNY as a world class literary region. Just Buffalo will be able to focus on the continuation of the programs and events you have come to expect, including Writing with Light, Wordplay, Big Night and, of course, Babel.

Play your part in sustaining Just Buffalo’s presence and future in our community by joining the Literary Leadership Circle today.

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MARCH 21 2012 / 8pm

Writing Your Legacy Laurie Dean Torrell

Just Buffalo Executive Director

An ethical will is a document or letter written to convey values to loved ones. I’ve recently started one, and wanted to share with you how meaningful this simple document can be.

Writer and physician, Barry K. Baines, M.D., who popularized the concept, says this practice stems from an ancient tradition of passing on personal values, beliefs, blessings, and advice to future generations. “In ancient times... ethical wills were particularly advantageous outlets for women, since society’s rules usually precluded them from writing a legal will or dispensing property as they wished. Historians have found examples of ethical wills authored by women during the medieval period, usually in the form of letters or books to their children.”

In his book, Ethical Wills: Putting Your Values on Paper, Baines shares a story of discovering the concept of ethical wills, and then retrieving it when his own father became ill—asking him to write a letter about the things he most valued. Baines’ father gave him two handwritten sheets— something that has meant more to him than any possession ever could.

Whereas a traditional will is about valuables, an ethical will is about values. And it can be done at any time—certainly in times of happiness and contentment, as well as when facing a loss. Baines suggests a good time to write an ethical will is at a turning point in your life, or when an event or situation has made you wish to reflect. It can be done

at any age, and revisited and updated over time. Questions to consider: • What do you stand for?

• What are your values and beliefs?

• What have been your meaningful or instructive life experiences?

• What are your hopes for the future?

The website www.ethicalwills.com suggests thinking of it as a love letter to your family.

The site contains a number of additional suggestions for getting started.

Should you wish to write your own ethical will, Baines recommends thinking in terms of the past, present, and also the future: “Some of our values and beliefs have been passed on to us from our predecessors. Our own life experiences shape our character and help form a foundation of our values and principles. Looking into the future, ponder what we might yet become and what we have left to do . . . get a few sheets of paper and a pencil or pen, and you’re ready to begin.”

For more on ethical wills, see Barry K. Baines, M.D., Ethical Wills: Putting Your Values on Paper, (Perseus Publishing, 2002) and www.ethicalwills.com.

Read Laurie Dean Torrell’s most recent article, “Creative Entanglement: The Promises and Challenges of Collaboration” in CultureWork: A Periodic Broadside for Arts & Culture Workers at http://culturework.uoregon.edu

ZADIE SMITH

KLEINHANS MUSIC HALL $10 Students $35 General Admission $100 Patron Reserved (includes author reception)

SPECIAL

Use your B&ECPL library card to purchase general admission tickets for only $25

PURCHASE ONLINE AT JUSTBUFFALO.ORG/BABEL PURCHASE BY PHONE AT 716.832.5400

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BABEL & A Library Card Lead to a Literary Path Around the World

Salman Rushdie

by Anne Taylor V. S. Naipaul

If you’re a reader, as I am, Buffalo is a wildly exciting place to be. A subscription to Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Babel series, a library card and a handful of coins are all you need to follow a literary path that takes you around the world.

Isabel Allende

Chinua Achebe

Maxine Hong Kingston

Since its inception five years ago, Just Buffalo’s international author series Babel has brought four world class authors to Buffalo each year. As a subscriber from the very first presentation, I have had the opportunity to hear such renowned writers as Salman Rushdie, Isabel Allende and Chinua Achebe impart their wisdom to Western New York’s reading public. Winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Booker Prize, the National Book Award and others, Babel’s speakers have represented all corners of the globe, broadening our worldview and stretching our minds with their insights.

It would be enough just to read the featured book that has been suggested for each author. But why stop there? With the virtually inexhaustible supply of resources available through the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library System, one can explore the entire context of each of the novelists. In preparation for V.S. Naipaul’s lecture at Kleinhans last October, for example, I borrowed the featured book, A House for Mr. Biswas, from my nearby library. It cost me a quarter to have it transferred from another library, and saved me the time and effort of picking it up elsewhere.

Because I wanted to know more about the Nobel Prize-winning author after finishing that book, for another twenty-five cents, I requested his biography, The World Is What It Is, by Patrick French. There, I discovered that A House for Mr. Biswas was based largely on the life of Naipaul’s father. How interesting! After reading the biography, I borrowed another

of Naipaul’s many novels from the library. Lo and behold, the opening line of A Bend in the River is “The world is what it is.” Ah, so that’s where Naipaul’s biographer got his title. How exciting! What a fascinating, meandering path that stimulated my curiosity and brought me to a far greater understanding of the literary process in general and the author in particular. I love knowing the full context of what I’m reading. All this at the bargain price of seventy-five cents.

Would I have discovered this without my library card? No. I would never have bought all three books and dipped into the intellectual waters surrounding V.S. Naipaul so fully. But I’ll borrow anything for free or a quarter. I can dabble in any direction my inclination takes me, and it costs me next to nothing. If reading about life on the island of Trinidad puts me in the mood for calypso music—which originated there— there are dozens of compact discs listed in the library database. Caribbean cooking? There’s more than one cookbook to choose from.

Babel brings some of the world’s most respected authors to Buffalo. We’ve heard writers from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America. It’s a huge asset for WNY, a tremendous credit to Just Buffalo, and a really big deal.

And, best of all, the journey can begin at the public library—that most wonderful and accessible of public institutions, available to each and every one of us, whatever our circumstances. With its full collection of books, music and film, we can indulge to our heart’s content.

Adapted from “My View” feature in the Buffalo News.

Photographs by Bruce Jackson

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Creative Ways to Give Jeffrey Hirshberg, CPA Just Buffalo Board and Development Committee Member

APRIL 12 2012 / 8pm

ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH

The mission of Just Buffalo Literary Center is, and always has been, to foster creativity and to celebrate the imagination, to create strong communities through the literary arts.

Giving, too, can be creative. Yes, we’re always grateful for a simple check, always appreciative of our donors’ generosity. Yet we also know that many supporters of the creative arts are looking for other ways to maximize the value of their gifts. Consider the following, among a host of giving alternatives:  Gifts of stocks or other appreciated property. Donors may reap the benefits of helping the organization, taking a charitable deduction for the full fair market value on the date of the gift, yet never having to recognize a capital gain.  Gifts of IRAs or similar assets. If you’re over 70, current legislation still allows you to directly roll over as much as $100,000 of your Required Minimum Distribution from a retirement account directly to Just Buffalo. (You don’t get a charitable deduction, but you don’t have to report the income either; and there are often many other benefits for not having to recognize income). This opportunity is set to expire at the end of 2011.  Gifts in Trust. Donors may want to consider establishing a “split-interest” trust.

They’re called “split interest” because the donor can benefit both the charity of his or her choice and some other family member. For instance, Just Buffalo could receive the income from such a trust for a designated term of years, at the end of which the remainder would revert to one’s family or other noncharitable beneficiary (a “Charitable Lead Trust.”) Or, the donor may wish to create exactly the opposite situation: a designated non-charitable beneficiary could receive the income for a period of time, at the end of which Just Buffalo would receive the remainder (a “Charitable Remainder Trust.”). Each of these trusts allows a donor to benefit Just Buffalo, her own family members, and take advantage of a charitable tax deduction as well.  A fourth alternative, generally less administratively cumbersome than a gift in trust, is a charitable gift annuity: the donor makes a charitable gift (this, too, could be appreciated stock), and receives or designates someone else to receive an annuity for the rest of his life. The rates for these annuities are especially attractive and are based on the age of the annuitant. Just Buffalo would most likely collaborate with another charitable organization (such as the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo) to assure that the annuity is secure and that the donor’s wishes are followed.

Any of these gifts may be used to underwrite specific programs—to sponsor a Babel speaker, for instance, or to support our award-winning Writing With Light education programs. Each of these creative ideas is technically sophisticated, which is why the Board of Just Buffalo has assembled an advisory team of attorneys and accountants who will be happy to work with your professional advisors to assure that your goals and objectives are met. We’d welcome the opportunity to discuss these and other charitable giving opportunities with you at any time.

KLEINHANS MUSIC HALL $10 Students $35 General Admission $100 Patron Reserved (includes author reception)

SPECIAL

Use your B&ECPL library card to purchase general admission tickets for only $25

PURCHASE ONLINE AT JUSTBUFFALO.ORG/BABEL PURCHASE BY PHONE AT 716.832.5400

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Literary Legacy Awards Dinner 2012 Honoring Sherry Robbins, Poet and Teaching Artist & Corinne and Victor Rice, Literary Arts Supporters Thursday, February 23rd at 6:30pm at Babeville Make your reservation by calling (716) 832.5400 Dinner $100 each or 2/$175 Includes 1 limited edition gift Literary Underwriter $500 Includes 2 dinner reservations, limited edition gift & listing in program and on event signage Table of eight $1,000 Includes program and table listing and gift for each guest For more than a generation, Just Buffalo Literary Center has connected the Western New York community with great voices in literature. So many people over the years have contributed to Just Buffalo’s growth and vitality.

Our work has been made possible through a visionary founder, the support of committed board members, the dedication and hard work of a small staff, collaborators, donors, funders, audience members, educators—and, always, the writers who have shared with us their words and imaginations.

Just Buffalo created the Literary Legacy Award to honor individuals who have made a significant contribution to the literary legacy of Buffalo. We have in general tried to follow the model of the first dinner, at which we honored Robert Creeley for his literary accomplishments and Debora Ott for her dedication to the literary community through her work in founding Just Buffalo. That is, we want to honor the significant accomplishments of an individual writer and also of an outstanding supporter of the literary arts.

The dinner is a biennial fundraiser for the organization which includes a catered meal, an awards ceremony and a gift of a broadside of a poem or other work by the literary honoree. It is also a special occasion to come together as a literary community—weaving together threads from the past, present, and emerging future to affirm the value and worth of these most important leaders and visionaries.

Previous honorees: 2004 Robert Creeley, Debora Ott, JBLC founder 2006 Jimmie Margaret Gilliam 2007 Alexis DeVeaux, Jonathon Welch 2009 Emanuel (Manny) Fried, R.D. Pohl We hope to see you there.

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JUST BUFFALO LITERARY CENTER Our mission is to create and strengthen communities through the literary arts.

PRESENTATION

Significant authors and poets in community settings

COMMUNITY Services to benefit the community and field as a whole

Reaches 114,730 • Comprehensive website • Literary Buffalo

Reaches 8,800

• Babel @ Betty’s

• Babel

• Writers Critique Group

• Big Night

Community Services cost $35,000

• Babel Extras Presentation including Babel costs $300,000

EDUCATION Supporting young writers, fostering audiences of the future

Reaches 3,000 • Writing With Light • Babel in the Schools • Spotlight on Youth

LEGACY

Stewardship of the mission over time

Reach: 36 years and counting • Literary Legacy Awards • Literary Leadership Circle • JBLC Archive at UB Poetry Collection Legacy, G&A, Fundraising costs $75,000

• Wordplay Anthology Education Program costs $170,000

Just Buffalo envisions a community that fully supports and values the love of reading, the art of writing, and the power of the literary arts to transform individual lives and communities.

Your support helps make this vision a reality.

617 Main St., Suite 202A, Buffalo, NY 14203

BIG NIGHT is Just Buffalo Literary Center’s monthly series that puts poetry in conversation with other art forms. Held at the Western New York Book Arts Center, it features younger and mid-career poets from around the country performing alongside local artists, filmmakers, musicians and a professional chef who creates a themed feast for each event. Information about Big Night, and all of the literary events going on around town can be found at www.justbuffalo.org.

Please consider a year-end gift to Just Buffalo (716) 832.5400 or www.justbuffalo.org