5 Questions for Chris Byrd – In Artvoice

From this week’s issue of Artvoice:

About two years ago Christopher Byrd fell into a conversation with Michael Miller of the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation, the organization which helped to save the hulking East Side vestige of Buffalo’s more prosperous days from the wrecking ball, and which continues to seek the means to rehabilitate and reinvigorate the building. Like Miller, Bird has a strong affinity for the struggling Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood, and the two discussed the need for an umbrella organization that would unite the voices of the neighborhood’s various community and church groups. Thus Broadway Fillmore Alive (broadwayfillmore alive.org) was born, co-founded by Byrd, Miller and housing activist Michele Johnson. AV recently met with Byrd at the Broadway Market to ask him about his group and its aims:

Artvoice: What led you to start Broadway Fillmore Alive?

Christopher Byrd: We tried to put together an umbrella organization for the neighborhood that doesn’t look at one thing specifically, like the Central Terminal or the Broadway Market or the churches. A group that would promote everything in the Broadway-Fillmore area. We’re trying to get all the organizations in the area to work as one…we all have different interests, but there are crossover issues, things that concern us all.