Jim Santella

> by HEATHER COOK

POETRY AT THE BURCHFIELD PENNEY

On Friday (12/11), the Burchfield Penney Art Center (1300 Elmwood Ave.) will host a reading along with live music. Noah Flack is the author of Snowmen Losing Weight (BatCat Press, 2012). Snowmen Losing Weight is a collection of 61 poems presented in an innovative accordion-style book with hand-inked covers and end-pages. It is approachable in the sense that it can be enjoyable for both readers and non-readers of poetry. It also holds a wide, relatable range of topics from baseball and mustaches to Dick and Jane.

The bio from his website says that Noah Falck is also the author of several chapbooks including Celebrity Dream Poems (Poor Claudia, 2013) Life As A Crossword Puzzle (Open Thread, 2009), Measuring Tape for the Midwest (Pavement Saw, 2008), and Homemade Engines from a Dream (Pudding House, 2007). He has received fellowships from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Ohio State University, and Antioch Writers’ Workshop. His poems have appeared widely in journals such as Boston Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Conduit, Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, Salt Hill Journal, and Poets.org. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, he now lives in Buffalo, where he works as Education Director at Just Buffalo Literary Center and curates the Silo City Reading Series.

Ten Cent Howl, a local Americana roots band, will supply live music throughout the event.

Lovers of good poetry and roots music will find much to take pleasure in on a not-so-cold December night. The event runs from 5:30-7:30pm.

TALES FROM A DJ

On Saturday (12/12), Talking Leaves...Books will present Jim Santella. He is well renowned as a disc jockey who began his career at Buffalo’s first progressive radio station in the late 60s. Toward the end of 1967, what was originally considered “underground” began to rise up and thrive. He retired as the host of his own blues show on public radio station WBFO, and co-presenter of Theater Talk with Artvoice theater editor Anthony Chase.

Santella’s book Classic Rock, Classic Jock: The Jim Santella Story: Father of Progressive Radio in Buffalo, has just been published by Buffalo Heritage Press. It is a memoir offering a half-century of tales behind the microphone.

Come meet the author on Saturday (12/12) at 1pm at Talking Leaves (3158 Main Street location). He has been broadcasting as the “father of progressive radio” to generations of Western New Yorkers, and so his spin on Buffalo radio should be interesting.