Readings, Writings, Visual and Performing Arts!

Babeville is home to an array of venues offering exciting upcoming events.

February 21, 2008 - Formerly known as “The Church,” Ani DiFranco’s Babeville is a complex home to an array of venues.  Babeville was formerly a 19th century house of worship that was saved in the mid-1990’s and is now one of the nation’s most unique performing and visual arts venues.  From Hallwalls to Asbury Hall, many exciting happenings within the galleries and halls of this architectural masterpiece are coming soon. 

Hallwalls will begin a new visual arts installation on March 1st running through April 5th.  Christina West’s “Shadows and Fog” will feature groupings of figurative sculptures realistically rendered in clay.  Using intense colors of screaming magenta and leaf green, the figures often revolve around an interaction between the sexes, with subtle gestures that hint at a psychological complexity.  “Tape Number One” by Tommy Becker is a video installation project that combines raw poetics with performance, music and costume design in an unusual spoken word-image collage.  His videos find the characters in both a humorous and melancholy state as they struggle to overcome adversity. 

On Friday, February 29th, world-renowned conductor, composer and innovator Lawrence D. ‘Butch’ Morris will conduct the Buffalo Improvisers Orchestra live in Asbury Hall.  The Father of Comprovisation, a style of organized group improvisation, Morris is a free jazz cornetist.  Morris began his career as a free jazz player before progressing to his current “conduction” methods.  During his lengthy career that has spanned several decades, he has played with such notables as Horace Tapscott, Bobby Bradford and Frank Lowe.

Finally, “Babel”…a series of readings and conversations with some of the world’s most prominent writers will continue on March 13th at 8 p.m. with Nobel Prize winning author Derek Walcott, a West-Indian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist.  Originally from the island of St. Lucia, Walcott has written and published more than 20 plays and poetry collections dealing mainly with the subject of post-colonial West Indian life.  The evening will be composed of readings and discussions followed by a question and answer period, book signing and reception. 

Babeville is located at 341 Delaware Avenue, at the corner of West Tupper.  For more information about these events or the many venues offered at the complex, please visit www.thechurchbuffalo.com.