The Jalen Law Collection

07/31/2026

Before 494 Michigan Avenue became an empty lot, it was celebrated nationwide as "the class of all nite clubs west of New York City." 🎷✨During the 1930s and '40s, the Little Harlem Hotel was one of the defining centers of Buffalo’s Black cultural and economic life.

It wasn't just a neighborhood spot—it became a recognized stop on the national Black entertainment circuit. On any given night, 350 guests sat under draped ceilings surrounding a custom bandstand and circle bar. Lavish floorshows featured gold-painted dancers, swing revues, and legendary bandleaders like Lil Hardin Armstrong, LeRoy "Stuff" Smith, and Jimmie Lunceford.

At the center of it all was Ann Montgomery, a pioneering Black entrepreneur who steered the venue through the Great Depression and ran it for nearly seven decades. Listed in The Negro Motorist Green Book, Little Harlem provided Black travelers during Jim Crow with something indispensable: an oasis of safety, dignity, and uncompromised hospitality. 🏛️The physical building was lost to a fire in 1993, but a space this significant shouldn't only exist in quiet archives.

To kick off this historical series, here is a 10-second CGI glimpse recreating the energy of Little Harlem’s big band nights and cabaret dancers—reconstructed on the very ground where it once stood.

This preview is part of the early development for the Buffalo Green Book AR Pilot: A Mobile Heritage Experience, a project bringing place-based public history directly to our streets.

Over the coming posts, I’ll be sharing more micro-stories about the people, the politics, and the music that shaped this location.

The buildings may disappear. The stories remain.

07/24/2026

06/05/2026

What happens when creativity meets artificial intelligence?

On June 10, I'll be joining a panel discussion on "AI and the Impact on the Arts" as part of Creative Professionals Exchange (CPX).

This won't be a conversation about whether AI is good or bad.

It's an opportunity to explore the complexities, opportunities, tensions, and questions emerging as AI becomes increasingly present in creative practice.

How do we think about authorship?
What happens to artistic labor?
Can AI expand access to creative tools?
What does originality mean in this new landscape?

Looking forward to engaging with fellow artists, arts professionals, and community members in a thoughtful discussion.

📍 Springville Center for the Arts
📅 June 10, 2026



For your voice specifically, I'd choose Option 2. It positions you as a contributor to a larger conversation rather than as someone promoting an event, which aligns with the King of Diamonds and 7 of Spades energy of expertise paired with inquiry.

03/10/2026

Dick Gregory: A Study in Resolve
24 × 30 in • Oil on Canvas

Comedian. Activist. Truth-teller.

This portrait is paired with a 1966 interview soundbite where Dick Gregory reminds us: humor can open minds—but real change takes real work.

03/05/2026

SWEET
Oil on Canvas • 30 in × 36 in
SOLD 🔴

A quiet moment of love, captured in oil.

Inspired by “Sweet” by Tyler, The Creator, this piece explores the feeling of falling for someone before you even realize what’s happening—when a look, a moment, or a presence shifts the whole atmosphere around you.

This original painting also includes an immersive animation experience, accessible to the collector through a private QR code, allowing the story behind the canvas to unfold in another dimension.

Grateful this piece has found its home. ❤️

02/23/2026

Beauty before rupture.
Gravity before flight.

02/10/2026

February 6, 2026.

I received a Certificate of Achievement from the Erie County Legislature, presented by Legislator Lawrence Dupre at the King Urban Life Center an honor rooted in community, service, and legacy. What makes this moment sacred is the timing.

I was nominated for the East Side Excellence Awards on December 18, 2025 — my mother’s birthday.
So this recognition doesn’t belong to me alone.

It belongs to the woman who taught me how to stand upright in the world.
Who modeled resilience before I had language for it.
Who showed me that purpose isn’t announced it’s lived, daily, often quietly.
This award is for her.
For the sacrifices that never made headlines.

For the love that shaped my compass long before my work found visibility.
Deep gratitude to Ms. Deirdre for seeing me, believing in my work, and nominating me. Being witnessed like that especially by someone grounded in community is a powerful thing.
Recognition is not the destination.
It’s a pause. A breath. A moment to remember why we do the work.

Then we continue.
Always forward.
Always rooted.

12/09/2025

Honored to be part of the World Public Art Conference at the United Nations joining leading artists, dignitaries, scholars, and cultural leaders from around the globe in shaping the future of public art.

My research, “Our Place, Our Purpose: Intergenerational Mural-Making as Public Pedagogy for Belonging, Imagination, and Cultural Preservation,” will be published in 2026 and was part of the conference proceedings. Sharing this work reaffirmed the power of youth-centered placemaking, ecological awareness, and intergenerational storytelling.

Grateful for the dialogue, inspired by the global community, and motivated to keep creating work that fosters belonging, imagination, and cultural preservation.

10/30/2025

“Nude.”
Once defined by lexicons as “the color of Caucasian flesh.”

Language framed perception, and perception, in turn, framed beauty.

Here pigment collapses on itself, devouring its own hierarchy. White, raw sienna, and yellow ochre blur and fuse until meaning dissolves.
The surface trembles. The body disappears.

What remains is the residue of seeing — an afterimage of history still clinging to the skin.
Perhaps “nude” was never a color, only an agreement about who was allowed to be seen.
Look closely.

Your eye is not neutral.