What’s Next?

Thank you for listening to Buffalo, What's Next? on WBFO. Buffalo, What's Next? will be taking a short break for the holidays and will return in January, with new content for the New Year. As we take this break for the holidays, please continue to tune in to WBFO Monday through Friday at 10am and 9pm for encore presentations of some of our favorite episodes of Buffalo, What's Next?

In our weekly “Producers’ Picks” episode we bring you highlights of recent important interviews with: Ed Koban, Music Director of the Native American Music Awards and Mental Health Counselor, Hamadi Ali and Dao Kamara from the Providence Farm Collective, and April Baskin, Chair, Erie County Legislature.Thank you for listening to WBFO’s Buffalo, What's Next?. The daily podcast will be taking a short break for the holidays and will return with new episodes on January 9th. While we are taking a break from producing new episodes, please continue to tune in to WBFO for encore presentations of some of our favorite episodes of Buffalo, What's Next?

At least once each year, Pastor Kinzer Pointer from Agape Fellowship Baptist Church on Northland Avenue in Buffalo takes new UB Medical students on a tour of Jefferson Avenue, pointing out the issues that they need to have awareness of and people they should have empathy for. Then Jay Moran brings us excerpts from a recent “Making Spaces” discussion at Buffalo Arts Studio with Artist Matt Kenyon, Fruit Belt activist Dennice Barr, UB professor Henry Louis Taylor Jr. and others on art, urban planning and economic justice.

After a NYS Inspector General report earlier this month found that Black and Hispanic incarcerated individuals were more likely to be disciplined than white incarcerated individuals in New York prisons, we talk with Jerome Wright, (Twitter:@JMrWright316) who spent 30 years in prison and now leads the HALT Solitary Campaign (http://nycaic.org/) and (Twitter:@NYCAIC). Then Teresa Watson, Housing Justice Organizer, with People United for Sustainable Housing/PUSH Buffalo (Twitter:@PUSHBuffalo) discusses reforms that would change the housing climate across the all of Buffalo.

In 1996, a group of community leaders from labor, business and notably churches came together to work on community justice and equity issues, long before the Tops shooting on May 14. Today, Rev. Denise-Walden Glenn, the director of that group, VOICE Buffalo talks of their work and what the community needs. She’s joined by VOICE Buffalo Lead Community Organizer Tyrell Ford. They’ll look at advocacy work on behalf of the disabled, the fight against gun violence, their work with the incarcerated, and criminal justice reform.

Marvin Askew, Executive Director of the Buffalo City Ballet and school shares his personal story, and talks about their holiday performances of "The Nutcracker" in the Box Theater on Leroy Avenue. Then noted preservationist Tim Tielman, Executive Director of the Greater Buffalo Campaign for History, Architecture & Culture shares information from his recent public forum on "Wrecking Jefferson" looking at how a neighborhood of houses, family businesses, and busy sidewalks disappeared into neglect.

In our weekly “Producers’ Picks” episode we bring you highlights of recent important interviews with: Dr. Myron Glick, MD. of Jericho Road Community Health Center, Chandra Redfern, CEO of Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Centers, Tiffany Lewis, at Confident Girl Mentoring Program, and Jennifer Parker of Jackson Parker Communications.

Mike Lee, COO of Evergreen Health (Twitter: @EvergreenHS) joins Liza, one of their clients to talk about what they feel is a major threat at the state level, (Twitter: @Leave340B) which would reduce funding for community health centers that provide help in underserved communities and populations. Then, activist Alex Burgos (Twitter: @AlexBurgosNY) talks about racism, homophobia and transphobia - and his efforts to combat them in the Hispanic community of Buffalo.

Today, Victoria Perez, the newly appointed interim education and arts engagement director at Shea’s Buffalo - will talk of her role there, and also the Raices Theater Company she founded to spotlight Latinx themes – including “Islena” a one woman show she performed in there this summer. Then Jay Moran visits a recent meeting of the Wakanda Alliance, an Afrofuturist group that works with youth and others in Buffalo.

Michael Badger from Bethesda World Harvest International talks about what the East side needs, and speak about his support for the Grieving Families Act pending before Governor Kathy Hochul. Then Stephanie Simeon of Heart of the City Neighborhoods and Ashley Smith from GO Bike Buffalo talks about transportation, equity and the East Side trail plan.

Erie County Legislator Howard Johnson looks at the lack of development on the East side with Angelea Preston. Then, Jay Moran is joined by Murray Holman from the Buffalo Peacekeepers and the Stop the Violence Coalition to discuss whether there has been any change or progress since the Tops shootings on 5/14.

In our weekly “Producers’ Picks” episode we bring you highlights of recent important interviews with: Reggie Keith, operator of Canna House, Tammy Simon-Baldon, advocate for STEM education, Larry Stitts, chief coffee roaster, owner/operator “The Golden Cup”, and Talia Rodriguez, Associate Director, West Side Promise Neighborhood.

Dr. Lori Quigley, Chairwoman, Seneca Gaming Corporation (Twitter:@The Best8Hours) is a member of the Seneca Nation, and the Wolf Clan. She talks with Jay Moran about the economic impact of gaming in WNY, but also of the efforts to preserve the Seneca language, and the troubled history of Native American residential boarding schools.

Geoff Kelly (Twitter: @ghkelly1969) from Investigative Post (@ipostnews) continues his reporting on Buffalo police, sharing his latest on racist attitudes and use of the N word in the department. Then Jason Corwin, Ph.D. (Onödowa'ga:'), a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Indigenous Studies at UB (Twitter: @UBuffalo) talks with Jay Moran about various issues including the recent launch of a full Indigenous Studies Dept, there.

Today, one day after the Tops shooter pleaded guilty to murder and domestic terror charges, we have the entire hour with Attorney John Elmore, who represents the families of shooting victims Andre Mackneil and Kat Massey. A former prosecutor and state trooper, Elmore has worked on civil rights issues in Buffalo for years and is the author of “Fighting for Your Life: The African American Criminal Justice Survival Guide.”

Jay Moran talks with Marvin Askew, Executive director, Buffalo City Ballet. Then Thomas O’Neil-White with Chae Hawk, a cinema and rap artist in Buffalo working on a history project involving the Buffalo Braves basketball team of the 1970s.

In our weekly “Producers’ Picks” episode we bring you highlights of recent important interviews with: Shondra Brown, author, “The Black Professional’s Guide: How to Navigate White Privilege in the Workplace.”, A talk on DEI for small business with Shia Arnold, Principal, Nurah and Associates, Otillie Woodruff, President; Denise V. Cobbs, Vice-President and Social Justice Chair Pamela Stephens-Jackson from the Buffalo chapter of AKA sorority- on-service.

Organizer Ed Koban talks about the Native American Music Awards, mental health, and more. Then, Hamadi Ali and Dao Kamara from the Providence Farm Collective share their stories of farming, culture, and community- touching on how they give back on the East side, and how they themselves need help to keep the collective growing.

Erie County Legislature Chair April Baskin talks of the community benefit agreement for a Buffalo Bills stadium, touches on educational opportunity and college readiness, and the community needs that linger after the Tops shooting.

In our weekly “Producers’ Picks” episode we bring you highlights of recent important interviews with: Daysi Ball, Director, Hope Center, Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Centers (BFNC) on senior needs-and leadership development, Terry Alford, Executive Director, Michigan Avenue African American Heritage Corridor reflects on the recent PBS program “Making Black America” and looks at unseen social networks in Buffalo and Tesha Parker, founder, “Rooted in Love” on community needs.

Today a look at hunger and poverty. Catherine Schick from Feed More WNY will talk about the face of local poverty, John Strazzobosco, the author of "Ninety Feet Under: What poverty does to people" will discuss his findings, and courtesy of Marketplace, we will look at one particular Feed More effort on Buffalo's East side.

Jennifer Parker will be with us to talk about entrepreneurship, minority and women owned business, mentorship, business development, and community. And then performer and artist Drea d’Nur -- the founder of Feed Buffalo -- talks about “Reimagining Black Death: A Requiem for Our Suffering” It’s a soundscape experience that begins and lands on love, exploring ancestral modalities of sound, movement and remembrance, that permits us to be present with our grief, our feelings and with one another.

Today Chandra Redfern, executive Director, Buffalo Federation of Neighborhood Centers, looks at human services delivery in WNY, and community needs since 5/14. Then Tiffany Lewis, of Confident Girl Mentoring Program, talking about that program and the dearth of mentoring programs for young women.

Exactly six months since the Tops Market shootings, we pause to look at the lives lost, and the activism they inspired since May 14. First a series of remembrances on each of the ten who were killed in the Tops Shooting, including a look at the loss- but also the activism their deaths inspired. Then, Mark Talley- who lost his mother Geraldine in the shootings - talks with Dave Debo about the journey he has made from grief and mourning to making a change in the community with his wife Roshneke and his organization Agents for Advocacy.