There will be no shortage of culture in Buffalo this weekend.
If you check out any of the following events, not only will you get off campus and away from the looming academic buildings, but Buffalo's city air will rejuvenate you for the homestretch of the semester.
This Friday is the second Friday of the month, meaning that Burchfield Penney Art Center, located at 1300 Elmwood Ave. on the Buffalo State College campus, is free to the public after 5:30 p.m.
Current exhibitions include "Bridging the Great Divide: Landscape from Tradition to New Media," "Biological Realism: Alberto Ray" and "Melt" by Brian Milbrand, according to the Center's website. "Biological Realism" is a series of paintings, videos and sculptures that documents environmental changes in the Scajaquada Creek of Erie County. For the science-brained student, Ray is a scientist who uses visual mediums to display his collected data.
If you were already thinking of the free visit to the Center, this may just pique your literary interests: this weekend is the first ever "Words," an exhibit which celebrates Buffalo's contributions to literature in the late 20th century. The event began Thursday and runs until Sunday.
Pianist Douglas "Trigger" Gaston will be performing during Happy Hour at the Center at 5:30 p.m. Friday. At 8 that same night, UB associate professor of English Judith Goldman will give a poetry reading. Goldman has published four books, is the Poetry Features editor for the journal. Postmodern Culture and has had her work published in Berkeley Poetry Review, text/sound and Aufgabe.
Saturday at the Center is jam-packed with Words events including Slow Art Day, which encourages visitors to spend more time on a single work of art through organized discussion, and poetry readings by Michael Basinski and Bufffluxus, Tennessee Reed, Alan Bigelow and Ishmael Reed.
From 4-5 p.m., Michael Basinski and Dr. Steve McCaffery, the David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters in the UB English Department, will have a discussion and give a poetry reading. McCaffery will perform after the conversation with Wooden Cities, an ensemble "devoted to working with young musicians and encouraging them to explore new methods of creating, performing, and thinking about music," according to the Center's website. At 6 p.m., author Ishmael Reed and Buffalo News journalist Jeff Simon will give a lecture and discussion session.
The final day of Words, Sunday, will focus on art and the role of Buffalo in "shaping the ideas of our postmodern era," according to the Center's website. From 1-4:30 p.m., a workshop will be given on the complications of Plein Air painting, entitled "Plein Air Painting: Knowing When to Stop."
At 2 p.m., Executive Director Anthony Bannon and Buffalo arts figure Ed Sanders will lecture on postmodernism. Finally, from 3:30-5 p.m., world-renowned choreographer John Lehrer will host the reading of Sanders' Poem from Jail. There will be three readings of the poem, given by three different people, and three choreographers and dancers will perform their interpretations of the poem during the readings.
If poetry, art, lectures and literature aren't your thing and you'd rather sit back and take in a movie with your favorite sweetie, The Screening Room Cinema in Amherst will be showing Clue on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights (get there early for beer, wine and food) and the Dipson Theatre at Eastern Hills Mall will be showing The Lunchbox and The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Although the temporary Whem Ankh ancient Egyptian exhibit closed at the Buffalo Museum of Science earlier this year, mummies have been brought back to the museum. "Mummies of the World Exhibition" opens on Saturday and student tickets are $18, which includes admission. The Museum is located at 1020 Humboldt Parkway on Buffalo's east side.
According to the museum's website, this is the "largest exhibition of mummies and related artifacts ever assembled" and will have both purposely and naturally preserved specimens. While you're at the museum, be sure to check out the newest science studios: "Bug Works," "InMotion" and "Our Marvelous Earth."
And if you are feeling more social this weekend but find yourself bogged down with studying and papers, be a little French and spend the afternoon working in a coffee shop. Try places like Sweet_ness 7, Spot Coffee on Elmwood, Coffee Culture or Dog Ears Bookstore in South Buffalo.
email: arts@ubspectrum.com
