Friends of the Buffalo story have an action packed August ahead of them. The programming includes tours, talks, live music, dance, and many other forms of story telling. The series is aimed at getting people to understand the relationship that se have with the history and the culture that surrounds the Buffalo waterfront. It’s our heritage, and we should be able to interact with it in ways that will help us learn about our past, present and future. The free series takes place at the Ruins of Canalside – The Commercial Slip at the Inner Harbor.
If you are interested in learning more about the Inner Harbor, the Erie Canal, and the people who made their marks on this significant part of our waterfront, then consider any one of the following.
TOURS: Docents will be on hand the next two Saturdays and Sundays from 12-7pm to lead “Guided Site Investigations”- come down and learn more about the Ruins and Canalside’s history with these young experts. Anytime you wish, you can take our “Voices of the Past” self-guided tour, scan the QR codes at the site with your Smartphone, and listen to the stories of real people who lived, worked and played at the terminus of the Erie Canal in Buffalo.
Monday, August 4th, 7pm: “It Happened Here”: A performance piece rooted in the Buffalo Story – a play with historic characters like Red Jacket, Fingy Conners, and Dug of Dug’s Dive… laced with humor, interesting history and fun stories, produced by Mark Goldman and directed by Eve Everett
Tuesday, August 5th, 7pm: “Buffalo’s Minstrel Show Connection” – Erie Canal-era music and history by three Rochester-based ethnologists and folk musicians, talking about Buffalo’s influential and problematic Irish and blackface minstrel shows in the 1840s and what they meant for the preservation of musical culture.
Wednesday, August 6th, 7pm: Wednesday Lecture Series with Tim Tielman: “The Battle to Save the Commercial Slip”
Monday, August 11th, 7pm: “It Happened Here” play (See above for details)
Tuesday, August 12th, 7pm: “Music of the Erie Canal” concert with Dave Ruch – A one-man show featuring songs, stories, images, field recordings, and uncommon musical instruments from canal days. Touring throughout the state, this multimedia concert program combines live performances on banjo, mandolins, bones, spoons, washboard, guitar, and jaw harp with fascinating local and regional history, liberal doses of humor, photos, archival recordings, and plenty of audience participation.
Wednesday, August 13th, 7pm: Wednesday Lecture Series with Tom Grasso: “The Past, Present and Future of the Erie Canal across New York State”
Sunday, August 17th, 7pm: “Burning Spirits” site-specific dance performance piece by Pick of the Crop Dance, using the Commercial Slip and the remaining foundation of what is now called The Ruins as the setting to capture Buffalo’s fascinating waterfront history during the mid 1800s. Narrative and abstract, subtle and circus-like incorporating contemporary ballet, hip hop, and movement inspired from historical dance forms.
Monday, August 18th, 7pm: “Burning Spirits” site-specific dance performance piece
Tuesday, August 19th, 7pm: “Music of the Erie Canal” concert with Dave Ruch
Wednesday, August 20th, 7pm: Wednesday Lecture Series w/Mark Goldman & Peter Dow: “A picture tells a thousand words: What images, still and moving, reveal about the history of Buffalo’s waterfront”
Sunday, August 24th, 7pm: “Burning Spirits” site-specific dance performance piece
Monday, August 25th, 7pm: “Burning Spirits” site-specific dance performance piece
Tuesday, August 26th, 7pm: “An Immigrant’s Journey” concert and talk about the band leader’s great-great-grandfather, William Donoho, who traveled across the ocean from Ireland, to NYC, up the Erie Canal, to Buffalo, and out west on the Great Lakes. Featuring the Golden Eagle String Band.
Wednesday, August 27th, 7pm: Wednesday Lecture Series w/Franklin LaVoie: “Deciphering the Enchanted Landscape: A Magical Tour of the History of the Waterfront”