Western New York native Kali Quinn will return to Buffalo this weekend for a reading and book-signing event from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 22, at Dog Ears Bookstore & Café, 688 Abbott Road, Buffalo.
Part memoir, part curriculum, part field guide, her book “I Am Compassionate Creativity” explores the integral relationship between compassion and creativity, especially within moments of uncertainty and when moving through deep grief. Quinn’s research stems from years of performing solo theater, teaching within universities across the country, and growing up in Buffalo.
“I didn’t want to publish a book and just put it online and in bookstores,” explains Quinn. “I wanted to reconnect with family and friends in-person and deliver my book to them in their homes. I wanted to take these stories on tour and create a movement.”
For the past two months, supported by individual and in-kind donations, along with a sponsorship from GoWesty, that’s what Quinn has done. Quinn and her tour partner, writer/musician Jacob Sapon, have been traveling down the east coast, through the mid and southwest, up the coast of California, and across the northern states bringing people together.
Quinn grew up in Hamburg and graduated from Frontier High School. She went to the University of Rochester and Dell’Arte International in California before moving on to create a theater company, GUTWorks, in New York City, and two solo performance shows that played off-off Broadway and across the country. In 2011, she moved to Providence, RI to teach at Brown University.
In the first chapter of her book, “Remember where you came from: land and people,” Quinn talks about her love for being born and raised in Buffalo. “I learned from early on that Buffalo isn’t a place that one leaves or can leave behind. Buffalo is a way of life: roots and baggage, weight and wings, an anchor, a heartbeat.”
For more information, please call Dog Ears Bookstore at 823-2665 or visit their website at http://dogearsbookstore.org/. You can also follow Dog Ears Bookstore on Facebook for frequent updates.
