_{Photo by Michael Mulley}

Jonathon Welch came from the upper Midwest to graduate school at SUNY-Buffalo, took a leave of absence from his studies in 1975 to join  a cohort of fellow book junkies in founding what has become Talking Leaves...Books, Buffalo's oldest independent bookstore, and ended up  falling into his life work. Raised in a small town, he's always been  very attentive to the essential connection between small local businesses and community, committed to the survival of both. 

Nationally, independent bookstores have been at the forefront of efforts to organize and educate around this issue and the perils we face in a monocultural, disconnected world. The existence, and work,  of Buffalo First is exciting because it brings people together in our community in a concerted way to address and redress the limitations of  our current economy, and to celebrate and strengthen the truly  fundamental and necessary local living economy.

For most of the history of Talking Leaves...Books in Buffalo, the  unending story has been of closing businesses, eroding population and  tax base, declining services. But there's been  another, equally  significant constant over that same period--locally based small  businesses, arts organizations, community-based non- profits, growing  and surviving, creating jobs, keeping people here, paying taxes, building community, forging a unique identity for and pride in this  special place. Buffalo First is the blooming flower that highlights the challenged but vital roots that have sustained our economy and  community in the shadow of that more ostentatious and precipitous decline. And it's also the fertilizer that will improve the soil, strengthen the roots, and encourage fuller and more beautiful blooms.