By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – The Kultural Kafe jazz and poetry experience is back on at the Langston Hughes Institute. After being postponed in June, "Ask Your Mama," featuring Miles Davis' son, will appear at the Institute on July 27th.
Reshuffling performances used to only happen when an artist got laryngitis. But, in the dawn of Buffalo's budget crisis, shows now get postponed while organizations scurry to find the money to put them on.
When the city canceled all cultural funding, the Langston Hughes Institute suddenly found themselves in a $50,000 hole. But Institute President Dorothy Hill says they had long ago realized the need to find other sources.
That's how the Kultural Kafe concept was born. The periodic events serve as fundraisers. Eventually, Hill says the goal is to expand the building for regularly scheduled income generating events.
"To turn a part of our building into a kind of small Kultural Kafe area, where we would have a kitchen, and be able to do a lot of things with poets and music," said Hill. "And, so we would want to have that space for where groups could come in and use our space, and then we could do it on our own, once a month, where we would do the music, and the poetry and the food."
"Ask Your Mama" -- the poetry of Langston Hughes with original jazz score -- features local artists, Jay Ward and Juini Booth, along with Gregory Davis, son of the legendary Miles Davis. They perform at the Institute at 8:00pm Saturday, July 27th.