Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American Landscape architecture, was brought to Buffalo in 1868 with a vision to design “a city within a park.” His legacy includes the expansive green necklace of parks and parkways running through the city of Buffalo—a place Olmsted would call the best-planned city in America. In celebration of Buffalo State's Year of the City initiative, the Rooftop Poetry Club invites you to learn more about the genius of Olmsted and the poetic nature of public spaces. Join us for poetry in the park. Guest speakers will introduce us to the rich history behind the parks, followed by guided workshop activities led by poets Irene Sipos and Lisa Forrest.
Join us for a special reading event featuring author Frank Kowsky, poetry by workshop participants, and a storytelling performance by Eve Everette on Friday, November 16, at 7:00 p.m. in Delaware Park's Parkside Lodge. All members of the community are invited to read poems about the city of Buffalo or the parks. The Parkside Lodge at Delaware Park is located at 84 Parkside Avenue (entrance off Parkside near the 198). R.S.V.P. to Lisa Forrest.
Francis Kowsky is SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus of fine arts. For many years, he taught the history of art and architecture at Buffalo State. He has written articles on nineteenth-century American architects, including A. J. Davis, Frederick Clarke Withers, and H. H. Richardson. Kowsky has had a long-standing interest in the early years of the American park movement and the role that Andrew Jackson Downing, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Calvert Vaux played in its history. The New York Times called his book Country, Park & City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux “a handsome effort to rescue from comparative oblivion the architect who shared—sometimes more than equally—with Frederick Law Olmsted in the design of Central Park and other New York amenities.” In 2013, the Library of American Landscape History and the University of Massachusetts Press will publish his book The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Vaux, and the Buffalo Park System.
Eve Everette is an adjunct lecturer in the Theater Department at Buffalo State and the assistant conference coordinator for the Anne Frank Project. She also works for the National Federation for Just Communities of Western New York as a CommUnity build facilitator. Everette graduated from Buffalo State with two degrees with honors: a B.A. in theater arts and art history. She earned an M.F.A. in classical and contemporary text for acting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow (UK). In January 2012, she traveled to Rwanda with the Anne Frank Project and assistant directed the latest AFP and Theater Department production When the Walls Come Down: Truth! directed by Drew Kahn. In her free time, Everette is usually cooking, traveling, and trail running.
