Laundromat offers much more than chore

By Jasmine Peterson and Maria Yankova
BengalNews Reporters

               When you step into the Westside Value Laundromat, you see more than just washers and dryers. Colorful drawings the walls, a group of computers in the corner and a stack of Burmese books are hints of the business’ other functions.

                Located at 417 Massachusetts Ave., the laundromat brings the community together by offering workshops, open-mic nights, arts and crafts, and English as a second language classes. -

               Zaw Win, a Burmese immigrant, opened the laundromat with the help of Westminster Economic Development Initiative in 2010. WEDI, run by Bonnie Smith, helps immigrants, refugees and native-born Americans start and manage a small business.

              “We help them right from the very beginning, anything that they need,” Smith said. “Permits, business plans, handling their cash flow, we find mentors for them who stay with them. We help them to find finances if they need it and then we stay with them afterwards.”

               That was made possible when Win partnered with Buffalo native Barrett Gordon last November to create the Westside Art Strategy Happenings Project at the laundromat.

               The WASH Project offers an array of specific weekly and monthly programs and services, including tax-preparation classes, home-buying workshops and weekly acupuncture clinics at the laundromat. It has also partnered with Computers for Children to help high school students in the community learn how to use and fix computers.

                 “I do a lot of things for my people,” Win said. “People have very limited English skills. They can’t understand when they go to school. … I read and write, translate, make phone calls. Every day they come here, I help them. Anything they need, they can come to me.”

                Gordon’s inspiration to help with the project came from The Laundromat Project, a Brooklyn-based non-profit arts organization which helps bring art programs to low-income communities.

              “The main idea is to just do some community-building and give people an enjoyable, free art experience while they do their laundry,” Gordon said.

              Gordon said that because of the WASH Project, the laundromat has fulfilled the goal to provide a unique place for people to enrich themselves while running an errand.

              “There’s plenty of community centers where people can go,” Gordon said. “But this is a place where people just kind of have to go to do, you know, their business and their laundry. We decided it just made sense to meet them there in the middle, and kind of engage them for that hour while they’re doing their laundry.”

              Michael Smith, a maintenance worker at the laundromat, noted the benefits the WASH Project has provided the community.

             “It keeps them off the streets,” Smith said. “They’ve got a nice place to come to, keeps them occupied.”

           

Lucy brews up tradition on Amherst Street

By Michael Mazzuto and Mike Provenzano

BengalNews Reporters

           Coffee. It’s an American staple. Most people cannot get through the morning without it, and it’s usually taken to go on the way out the door. Lucy Ethiopian Restaurant celebrates coffee with a ceremony that coincides with the origins of when the bean was discovered in the province of Keffa, Ethiopia.

            Patrons get to observe the way coffee is prepared, brewed and served according to Ethiopian tradition. The husband and wife team of Abba Biya and Naima Tesfu are co-owners of the restaurant and decided the coffee ceremony would be an automatic when the business opened on the corner of Amherst and Grant streets last March.

            “The ceremony is part of the culture and tradition,” said Biya. “It’s part of getting together and sharing.”

            The coffee ceremony has become synonymous with Lucy Ethiopian, along with the authentic cuisine.

            “We have a lot of people coming for coffee...some come for just the coffee,” said Tesfu.

Naima Tesfu demonstrates the traditional coffee ceremony: 

             
            The ceremony starts with the female hostess, in this case Tesfu.  She wears a white cotton dress specifically for the ceremony. The green Ethiopian beans are then washed, roasted and ground by Tesfu.

            The beans are roasted on a cast iron skillet and Tesfu walks it around the dining room allowing patrons to smell the aroma. She then grinds the beans back in the kitchen. It’s the only step that deviates from custom. Lucy Ethiopian uses a modern electric grinder as opposed to the traditional mukecha, a wooden bowl and stick that is used to crush the beans.

            The fine ground is then added to a jebena, a clay pot with a long neck, and is brought to a boil.

            The knee-high serving table behind the counter is where Tesfu carefully pours the final product into small porcelain cups to be served. The entire process is part of what Tesfu calls, “the fifths.”  The ceremony involves the five senses and ends when the final product is tasted. Natives usually drink it black.

            The coffee is never served alone. It’s accompanied by homemade bread, called de fo dabo, or sweet popcorn. Something always to has to be served with the coffee, according to Tesfu.

            The polar opposite of American coffee habits, Ethiopians celebrate coffee three times a day, morning, afternoon and after dinner, and each ceremony starts with a prayer. It symbolizes friendship and respect. Coffee serves as an extension of the community, according to Biya.

            The Saturday ceremonies from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. have added to the uniqueness of what Amherst Street has to offer, like art galleries, a pastry shop, a specialty delicatessen and numerous others eateries.

            Dr. Gary Welborn, Sociology professor at Buffalo State and long time West Side advocate sees a pattern of new business and renovations in the neighborhood.

            “They are really beginning to attract a good group of people coming down there.  So you see busy evening weekends.  To put it into a larger context, I think Amherst Street is a little ahead of Grant Street,” said Welborn “But it’s part of a whole thing where the city sort of bottomed out about the mid- to late-80s and then began a slow climb back up and now a lot of the fruits of the work over those years is beginning to take hold and people are seeing the rejuvenation.”

Asarese, hockey matter to West Side youth

By Lars Lewis and Anthony Howard

BengalNews Reporters

            Inside the Asarese-Matters Community Center on a Monday or Wednesday night during the winter, next to the scorer’s table sits a man who has seen and done it all for amateur sports on the West Side. 

Ottavino “Tovie” Asarese, 84, is the founder and commissioner of the West Side Play Area Street Hockey League on Rees Street, where he’s been involved in amateur and youth sports for over 50 years.

Since 1970, the floor hockey league has provided West Side teenagers with an opportunity to play the sport of hockey without paying the large fees ice leagues command.

Ottavino "Tovie" Asarese has his eyes on the game.

Asarese, who is a member of the Great Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame, has inspired multiple generations through his leadership and commitment to keeping kids safe from the streets by forming multiple sports leagues for the youth.

“It is an alternative to ice hockey. It gives kids who didn’t or don’t have a lot of money a chance to play,” Asarese said. “I wanted to keep the kids busy in the winter time. We needed something kids wanted to play.”

Asarese also founded the West Side Little League football club, West Side boys baseball and West Side ponytail softball all with a similar goal in mind: to keep the fun going year-round.

The hockey league was created 19 years before the community center that houses it today was constructed. During those 19 years, the league was played outdoors on the playground next to the center.  

“When we built the playground, there were no lights,” Asarese said.

Asarese on the value of the floor hockey league to the community:


 At one point the league had 24 teams that played games five days a week. Now, Asarese said a lack of funding has caused the league to shrink to four teams across three different age groups -- 8 to 10, 11 to 12 and 13 to 15.

Still, Asarese said that the hockey program itself has been stable in terms of interest. It’s just a matter of spreading the word about the league.

“We do not have any money, we rely on public announcements.” Asarese said.

He also said that he is currently looking for more ways to spread awareness of the hockey program to ensure its longevity. 

The Asarese-Matters Community Center itself receives funding from New York State and charges a $5 registration fee for the cost of the trophies at the end of the season. 

Some youth who have outgrown the games remain involved to help support it. 

“I grew up in the league since I was 7 and I played all the way until I was 16, then I came back to referee the past two years,” said Marco Marrero, a 21-year-old student at D’Youville College. “The experience here is unique and it kept me off the streets. The league teaches kids sportsmanship and some of them build relationships here that continue to high school.”        

            Even with a new blue gym floor that was installed before the season began, most of the equipment used by the kids is outdated and torn. There is also a need for more bleachers for fans to sit and watch the games. 

The center itself was almost shut down last summer when its five-year contract with Erie County expired. With the needs of new equipment and the growing concern for support, the league is in need of assistance from sources aside from the state. 

But even after 40 years, the league continues to push forward with the support of the community that has never wavered. Asarese has fought through these concerns and wants this league to continue long after he leaves this earth.    

Darryl Hill, who coaches in the league, said he feels what Asarese provides to West Side youth is crucial to community.

“A lot of these kids that look forward to playing hockey bring their moms and dads out to support them and sometimes even their whole family,” Hill said. “Not a whole lot of places around here do that.”