Inspired by Ross Gay and his poetry collection Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), Just Buffalo Literary Center embarked on a six-month project this year to explore patterns of gratitude, joy, and delight with their local literary community. The center’s mission is to strengthen communities through the literary arts by creating programming and collaborating with communities across western New York. Through the In Gratitude initiative, the center mounted “In Gratitude” boxes around Buffalo, which invite passersby to drop in notes meditating on everyday joys and ordinary wonders. The prompt for notes encourages people to “use this space to write, draw, sit, be, explore gratitude…no rules. No right or wrong answers. Just pause. Reflect. What are you grateful for, in this moment? In this place? With these people?”
Responses included “I am grateful that Buffalo is a city of poets” and “I have so much gratitude for the seasons, for you cannot stop the change.” The project officially culminated with a celebration of readings and performances through the Silo City Reading Series on June 27; however, the overwhelming response the initiative received from residents has inspired the organizers to consider an expansion of the program, although future plans are not yet finalized and are contingent on additional funding. “Through the In Gratitude project we have learned that inviting the community to practice intentional gratitude is a powerful and necessary endeavor,” says Noah Falck, the literary director of Just Buffalo Literary Center. “This project has fostered new partnerships and built community around a shared, positive focus. The world is so heavy and hard at times…why not ask people to notice the good around them and celebrate it through a note, a poem, a reflection, a memory.”
