Nominations are now open for the 2020 Spark Awards, our annual celebration where we recognize outstanding individuals and organizations in the Western New York arts and cultural community. Every year, ASI honors leaders and heroes within our region for their dedication, talent, and critical impact on the sector.
Award categories for the 2020 Spark Awards include:
Artist of the Year
Arts Organization of the Year
Arts Integration
Lifetime Achievement
Rising Star
Supporter of the Cultural Sector
Trailblazer of the Arts
Unsung Hero
Deadline: Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Save the date: Join us at the Forbes Theater at 500 Pearl on Wednesday, May 13, 2020 for an evening of dinner, drinks, entertainment, a silent auction, awards ceremony, and more.
A political correspondent flagged Trump's "Hunger Games-style" competition as auditions began for kids who will compete.
During an episode of The Daily Beast Podcast, Farrah Tomazin wrapped a conversation about Trump's D.C. beautification projects and spectacles, like the Great American State Fair, by pointing to the next big events he has planned in the nation's capital.
Even though July 4 has passed, "more America 250 spectacles are going on very soon," like an Indy car race and an event Trump is calling the "Patriot Games." It involves bringing together kids from around the country to compete against each other.
"Keep your eye out for this," Tomazin said about the Patriot Games. "It's essentially a Hunger Games-style event."
She was evoking the famous Hunger Games franchise from books and movies, where kids from a dystopian world fight to the death.
"This will not include death and destruction or the like," Tomazin said about the Patriot Games. "But it's basically getting kids from different schools to compete in the nation's capital for a made-for-TV ESPN spectacle."
According to Tomazin, "auditions" to recruit kids to compete in the Patriot Games are "going on at the moment," and the Trump-backed Freedom 250, which organized the Great American State Fair, has "called for auditions where you have to provide an audition tape."
She also compared it to America's Got Talent, the reality competition show, as kids "have to provide them with an audition tape to talk about yourself and how much you love the country, and then you'll get to go to the nation's capital and compete in some sort of Patriot Games."
A look back at New York State Assemblyman Arthur O. Eve's Buffalo Mayoral Primary Victory, featuring his speech and community celebration as it all happ…
