2016 Schedule

Please note: Thursday’s event is free and open to the public with registration.
Tickets, Festival passes, and day passes for Friday and Saturday can be purchased here.
Saturday’s outdoor Renaissance Festival activities are free and open to the public.

Thursday, September 22, 6:30PM-8:30PM
Downtown Public Library | free registration here

“The Economics of Segregation: A Town Hall on Race and the Buffalo Renaissance”

Thursday evening’s event, which will be held at The Buffalo & Erie County Public Library and is sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities, will focus specifically on the economics of segregation. Buffalo’s distressed economy, like many industrial cities (Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland), began in the later half of the 20th century and marked the city, especially the East Side, with familiar images of urban blight such as barren lots and worn-down homes.  Today, many see Buffalo on the upswing – millennials are flocking to Buffalo for the low cost of living and the prospect of owning a home.  However, add to this economic upturn a legacy of segregation that ranks Buffalo among the top five most segregated cities in the country and it becomes readily apparent how African Americans were hit hardest by the economy’s decline after WWII and overlooked by today’s upswing. And when you add segregation to the mix, “economic renaissance” becomes a positive code for “gentrification.”

Must economic growth come at the expense of one group over another?  What might just, equitable development look like?  How can we develop economically and socially so that the lowest members of society grow as well? These and other questions will be addressed in “The Economics of Segregation.”

Friday, September 23, 8PM
Albright-Knox Art Gallery | purchase tickets and VIP passes here

VIP event with the author at 7pm, followed by a talk on “The Rebirth of the Heavens” at 8pm, with a book signing to follow.  Read more about Dava Sobel and her books here.

Dava Sobel will be introduced by Mayor Byron Brown.

Saturday, September 24 | purchase day-passes for talks and films here

On-going outdoors from 10:30-4:30: **FREE**, family-friendly events and entertainment outside, including food, games, song, theater, kids art projects, demonstrations, and information on Buffalo’s Renaissance.