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If you’re sad that summer Renaissance Faire season is over, don’t be! The Buffalo Humanities Festival has a number of free, outdoor Buffalo Renaissance Festival activities that you can bring your entire family to enjoy!

Come on by the Buffalo State campus at Rockwell Hall for activities like: public art for children, a fiber spinning demonstration, physical fitness bootcamp, GoBike, madrigals, a Sonnet Slam, live, impromptu performances of Shakespeare, social dance, and sidewalk chalk for everyone. There will be a special Kan Jam challenge at noon. What’s Kan Jam, you ask? It’s a popular outdoor lawn game invented in Buffalo.

And of course, volunteers dressed in Renaissance garb will guide people around. Keep your eye on our Facebook, Twitter, and this blog for more details.

While these fun family-friendly events are free and open to the public, a festival pass will get you into the great talks, conversations, live music, Shakespeare in Delaware Park performance, and indie films that are scheduled — as well as FREE ENTRY to the Albright Knox museum during the Saturday festival! Plus, if you purchase your ticket by Wednesday, 9/21, you’ll get a free lunch from the West Side Bazaar.

While we are familiar with the U.S. Revolutionary war as a declaration of U.S. independence from Britain, Native communities also played a role in fighting and were changed by the results of the war. In “Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Revitalization,” Alyssa Mt. Pleasant brings attention to the poorly known Sullivan Campaign, when the Continental Army invaded and destroyed much of Haudenosaunee territory in the Finger Lakes region.

At the outset of the War, Native people and loyalists carried out destructive raids on the frontiers of New York and Pennsylvania in 1778. The Sullivan Campaign of 1779 was an attempt to counter those raids. The Sullivan campaign destroyed the lands, homes, and farms of Native populations and reduced their ability for self-sufficiency.

The two major battles, the Battle of Chemung and the Battle of Newtown, in the Sullivan Campaign occurred in August 1779. The Battle of Newtown occurred near present day Elmira, NY. By discussing the resources and strategies Native people drew upon to rebuild in the wake of war, Professor Mt. Pleasant explains how numerous reservation territories in today’s Western New York came to exist.

For more on the Sullivan campaign, please join us on Saturday, 9/24 from 11 am – 12 pm at Rockwell Hall, Room 304 on Buffalo State University’s campus. You can purchase tickets and daypasses to the Festival here.

Alyssa Mt. Pleasant (Tuscarora) teaches Native American Studies at the University at Buffalo. A historian who specializes in the colonial period and early American republic, her current project focuses on the Buffalo Creek Reservation. She has been a guest on CNN and has been profiled in the New York Times and Indian Country Today.

Along with a wonderful roster of talks that explore our theme of Renaissance Remix, the 2016 Buffalo Humanities Festival also features great music, performances, and films. One of this year’s featured musical groups is The Christ Church Consort.

Based in Rochester, New York, the Christ Church Consort is comprised of Early Music professionals Glenna Curren, Aika Ito, Julia Neely, and Ben David Aronson.  The Christ Church Consort is dedicated to providing the highest levels of Early Music performance and education.

The Christ Church Consort explores the rich repertoire and performing traditions from the famed Regensburg Partbooks of 1579.  Unique in preserving many instances of specific instrumentation, the Regensburg manuscript is one of the richest sources of sixteenth-century vocal music copied for instrumental ensemble.  Featuring representative works from some of the most famed composers of its era, the Regensburg manuscript is an essential guide to illuminating the practices of the Renaissance instrumental ensemble, many of which persist to our own day.  The presentation includes a discussion of the material.

We’re excited to listen the beautiful music of The Christ Church Consort from 11:00am-12:00pm in the Burchfield Penney Auditorium.