Late last year, my friend Kristine announced that she was going to make a zine that was dedicated to mapping buffalo by EXPERIENCES, STORIES & MEMORIES not by streets & addresses. She called it “Conroy & Brown’s Impractical Cartography” and put a call out for submittals late last year. This weekend it made its debut (in print!) at the Small Press Book Fair and is now in the hands of over 75 people who can read the real reasons that make the spaces of Buffalo very special places. It is a beautifully made zine – the materials, binding and style is very hip and made with Buffalove.

The zine covers stories from all over the city – the West Side, East Side, Elmwood, Allentown.. and more. Some are place specific, others are about Buffalo in general. Julia Rocchi from the National Trust for Historic Preservation wrote about her experience at Five Points Bakery, one of many “community building” experiences during her visit that made her literally fall in love with Buffalo. What did I write about? The day I met Jason for the first time, which was the day I realized I could have someone by my side who was as crazy in love with Buffalo as much as I was. We met at Sweetness (of course) and it’s been our favorite spot ever since!

This printed matter may have not happened if it wasn’t for Sugar City’s last Sunday Soup event. The Impractical Cartography folks were just one of several proposals all fighting over a solid 500 dollar grant. But luckily, they won!

Thank you to Kristine, Mike and Joel for putting this together. Your project has been one of my favorites!

You can find out more about this project here: https://www.facebook.com/ImpracticalCartography?fref=ts