You Are Here

As the first part of two workshops, we are inviting University of Buffalo to host a project here as part of a larger series of events called Fluid Culture.  The first part will be this Saturday May 12th at 1pm, and it will be focused on our stories of displacement.  It will include a visual arts aspect through mapping as well as mixed media storytelling of oral histories (audio recording, poetry, and drawing).

The second part will be next Saturday May 19th at 1pm, and we invite everyone to see the unveiling of the project that UB graduate students in the Architecture Department have been working on.  We will also be exhibiting the work and the stories from the first workshop.

The three questions that we'll be focused on, based on the idea of where we're from, are:

• What did you bring?
• What did you leave behind?
• And what did you find?

Please talk to Janice if you're interested!

Mural ... completed!

Thanks to everyone who came out to our mural unveiling on Friday!  Feel free to stop by anytime to see the real thing:

Mural Unveiling tomorrow!

 Our members have been hard at work finishing up a 11' x 5' mural that represents our core values of creating an open, safe, and productive space.  We're holding a casual event tomorrow starting at 6pm to give everyone a chance to check it out and hear more from the people who participated and made this work of art possible.  So invite your friends and family and stop on in tomorrow, Friday 5/4 at 6pm!

See the event reminder on the PUSH Buffalo website

Check out the photos from the mural kick-off on April 3rd

For members, if you're interested in helping out, check in with Megan to see if there's work to still be done.

- Janice

Photos from Thursday mural kick-off!

We kicked off our mural project last Thursday with an awesome start.  We had over thirty GSNC members help with getting designs on the wall and even get a few designs on the wall.  The afternoon started with a discussion on our values -- not the greatest discussion, but this mural is all about creating and open, safe, and productive space, so we got right into designing and painting the different designs.

Megan was able to combine several designs into one design, which was sketched onto the wall into a 9x4 grid, made up of thirty-six 15"x15" squares.  On Thursday, people were able to sign up for their own square, sketch out what they wanted it to look like, then actually paint right onto the wall and fill it in.

We still have a lot of empty squares left and the goal is to complete the entire mural by the end of April.  Want to help out?  Just stop in and let us know!

Keep in mind: We are open this week from 12pm to 5pm because of spring break.

  

Getting all our supplies in order (thank to PUSH's Tool Library!)

Megan paints the initial design on the wall, which was a collab between designs drawn up by several GSNC members

Doing some planning and prep before the designing and painting starts

One of our volunteers, Aneka, helping get the designs started

And the painting begins! (Far to near: May'ra, Anais, Beth, Esha, and Mariah)

Theo painting in his top-right corner

Awesome turnout: At least thirty people came out to help with the mural!

$100 worth of paints = art being did

Kick-off is a success!  Theo and Ibrahim are putting the last touches before we end for the day.

Bullying: A Poem by Steven

Bullying by Steven Collins

It hurts to get bullied but they don’t known it

They think it’s fun I can tell their faces show it

 They Make you feel small and say your

Nothing           

 You grow up to become

Something

Like Michael said

Look at yourself in the mirror

You can’t make it any clearer

You’re scared you can’t walk in

Your shadow

 They make feel like you don’t want to

See tomorrow

 Crying doesn’t solve it there is no reason

You just want to stop all the teasing

Bullying is something that never goes

Away as much as you want it won’t fade away

First Day of Spring

The first day of Spring was bright and beautiful!

There was lots of chalk action out on the front steps of GSNC:

And our sweet volunteers got some Jamila-hugs...

And then Jamila took some great pictures, like this one of our resident teddy-bear!

Hi My Name Is...Tyeisha! I am here to talk to you about the best and the fun at Grant Street Neighborhood Center. When I say best I mean great. It's really good things to do here. I've been coming here since I was eight years old and now I'm ten and I've seen good things happen and bad things are gone. So here are some things you and your family can do here. 

• Posters
• Books
• Chairs
• Paper
• Markers

  Now here's the rules

• No cursing
• No fighting
• No smoking
• No calling people names

Also if you need help getting here it on Grant near Lafayette. If you are coming from Lafayette, it's a few buildings down on the right. It's a big red brick building---you can't miss it! See, it's really easy to get here.

And the rules and the activates are really fun.  you should stop here to become a  member. I'm glad I'm a member here because there are friends and activates and there is a lot of things to do here. Well, stop on down here and we'll make you feel at home! Bye, nice talking to you!

 yours truly,

Ty'eisha A.K.A Mrs. Alsom

p.s. I took the pictures truly Mrs.Alsom

A Poem by Theophile

Love

Oh! Love pushes me in your way

Oh! Love pushes your son in your way

Oh! Love create my way

Oh! Love, you are the greatest

I am always waiting for you

You change people who were unchangeable

OH! Love, you make me to pursue my goal

Oh! Love, nothing compares to you

You are really awesome

You are all I need in my life

You push me to do anything I didn’t think,

I could do

Oh! Love fills peace in our heart

Oh! Love fills happiness in our heart

Oh! Love throws away our mistakes

Oh! Love, you‘ll be always our food

You made us who we are

Peace, peace sings your song

Ocean, lakes sing your song

I do not know well who you are

Because I can’t be lost when you’re with me

I never hallucinated in my life

Because you were with me

I never broken my heart

Because you were the soldier of my heart

I never felt tired in my heart

Because you brought contentment to me

Towers and Writing

Yesterday, at the center, Carmen created this awesome tower of the the Jenga blocks!

Also, Word Swag went outside to write!

Pictures March 7

THIS IS ME ABDI OR ALEX. I TOOK THIS PICTURE AT GRANT street NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER.
HI AM BACK AGAIN TO MY PICTURE NAME IS ABDI OR ALEX. I MADE THIS PHOTO WITH THE BUILDING AT DOWNTOWN IF YOU WANT PLEASE YOU CAN SEND ME A MESSAGE ...