“WRITE ON!: Imagining 1412 Jefferson Avenue.”

Event to be held Saturday October 19th at 2PM at 1412 Jefferson Ave., Buffalo, NY 14208

Buffalo, New York, October 4, 2024. On Saturday October 19th, from 2PM to 4:30PM, members from the Justice for Geraldine and Martin Campaign will collaborate with Kind Fools for an event titled “WRITE ON!: Imagining 1412 Jefferson Avenue.” This event is free and open to all participants. 1412 Jefferson Avenue marks the site of Sostre’s former Afro Asian Book Shop, and where Sostre and Geraldine (Robinson) Pointer were wrongfully arrested on July 15th, 1967. In the event of inclement weather, we will gather at the Apollo Media Center located at 1346 Jefferson Avenue.

Attendees gather in a circle for a check-in and brief body-awareness meditation, followed by listening to a poem composed by Rev. Dr. Majadi Baruti, connected to imagining 1412 Jefferson Avenue. Subsequently, attendees will be invited to write on how this unused space may be used for the neighborhood’s benefit, how we may incorporate neighborhood voices, our individual and collective roles in doing so, and how we may organize in the spirit of the Afro Asian Book Shop. Participants are encouraged (though not required) to share portions of their writing and to foster collective understanding and a way forward for just and equitable community building in the Cold Springs neighborhood.

     Rev. Dr. Majadi Baruti, organizer for PUSH Buffalo, poet, and griot expressed “my political consciousness is deeply rooted in Black Books and Black Bookstores. Shutting down the Afro Asian Book Shop is consistent with the current dismantling of DEI departments in colleges around the U.S.”

    Through utilizing 1412 Jefferson Avenue, the Justice for Geraldine and Martin campaign actively honors the Afro Asian Book Shop’s history, which served as a catalyst for Black political thought and movement building in 1967 Buffalo. Prior, 1412 Jefferson Avenue served as the location of the Nation of Islam’s Muslim Mosque No. 23, founded with Malcolm X’s assistance. Furthermore, it serves as an opportunity to engage with community members to determine what may be built in its stead, serve the needs of neighborhood residents, and call attention to local government’s role in fostering and upholding, rather than repairing, racialized segregation.

About the Justice for Geraldine and Martin Campaign: We are a volunteer led, grassroots group calling upon Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael Keane (D) to exonerate Geraldine (Robinson) Pointer and Martin Sostre’s arrests on July 15, 1967 at the former Afro Asian Book Shop at 1412 Jefferson Avenue. 1421 Jefferson Avenue is currently a vacant lot, owned by the City of Buffalo, with an assessed value of $10,000. Furthermore, our campaign seeks to reclaim and steward this space for the community’s use and control, and address historical consequences of redlining, segregation, and disinvestment from Buffalo’s East Side.

About Kind Fools: Kind Fools is a program of WNY arts nonprofit Community Canvases. We believe that communities are stronger when every person feels encouraged to express themselves and also feels a responsibility to the community. Our intuitive writing workshop WRITE ON has been offered at over a dozen locations throughout the Buffalo region. Express your truth, hear with each other.

 

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Buffalo Restaurant Week press conference at 42 North Brewing @ The Flats, 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 7