Get on your good foot! The Buffalo Central Terminal is the place to be for The Buffalo Boogie and Dance Party Monday evening.
Featuring dance music from the '60s, '70s and '80s, Buffalo Boogie on the surface just looks like great time, but the event is serving a worthy cause. Three 2 Go Music Alliance and Taylor Made International, the two groups hosting the event, announced all proceeds from the party will go towards the expansion of the Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park expansion to make room for a monument celebrating African American Veterans from the Revolutionary War to the present day.
Melissa Kate, a partner at Three 2 Go, said the monument will fit right in at the Naval Park.
“There’s also a Polish-American World War II Monument. There’s a Merchant Marine Monument. So it’s going to be there in good company of celebrating other, diverse areas of the military," Kate said. "So it won’t be standing on its own doing that. But we do think that deserves a special honor because there is an extra struggle when you’re a black American and we want to acknowledge that. So we are happy to support it.”
Buffalo Music Hall of Fame inductees Van Taylor and Joey Diggs will be performing with Taylor Made International. Kate said Taylor Made can identify with the struggles experienced by blacks in the military.
“Taylor Made Jazz and RWMVP, the other partner in Three 2 Go Music Alliance, they’re black-owned businesses, she said, "and I’ve also seen the struggles that they have gone through and the stories they have told about they’re interactions with black military people, in particular.”
But the dancing must commence and Kate is looking for people at the event to show their latest moves out on the dance floor.
“We want people to create their own dance and we’re going to use the song 'Lance Party' from our good friend Lance Diamond, Buffalo icon," Kate said, "and we’re asking people to go online and Google it, YouTube it, find 'Lance Party' by Lance Diamond and if you want to create a dance or just make up a boogie on the spot, we’re going to be recording that for the public.”
Doors to the event open at 6 p.m.