There's a cultural triple header (followed by a cold, craft brew) taking place this Saturday in Buffalo. There may be more free arts events taking place on September 26 than on any other day this year.

The Smithsonian-inspired Museum Day collides with the international 100,000 Poets and Artists for Change Day, which both occur on the closing day of the week-long Humanities Festival, Gender Bender.

Look for a remarkable array of talks, readings, performances, installations, workshops and ... wait for it ... FREE entry to no fewer than fifteen of our top arts and culturals. With Buffalo Beer Week well underway, it all happens on Saturday. So save your shopping for Sunday (before or after the Bills game, of course) and take advantage of this cultural extravaganza.

Museum Day gets you through the doors of no fewer than 16 fabulous arts & culturals for FREE. From the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, to Buffalo Niagara Heritage Village, to the Colored Musicians Club Jazz Museum and the Erie Canal Discovery Center, you could spend the entire day museum-hopping. Click here for a list of all participating museums.

!00,000 Poets & Artists for Change in Buffalo, organized locally by Arts Services Initiative (ASI) has spawned more than a dozen intriguing endeavors, from River Interstate Sunrise at Riverside Park, to Short Order Poems for Change at the Elmwood-Bidwell Farmers Market, to Yoga for Poets and Poetry Lovers at the Himalayan Institute on Delaware. Check out the complete list here.

Some of the Gender Bender Humanities Festival events overlap and double as 100,000 Poets and Artists for Change. Head to the Burchfield-Penney and check out Cyrano Becomes CyranA, A Shakespearean Gender-Bender (by Shakespeare in Delaware Park) and Romeo and Juliet & Twelfth Night. All are listed as part of bth events.

Saturday the 26th is the culmination of the Humanities Festival, with lots of talks, music, food, films, and dramatic performances like The Black Male Body in Comics, Allen Ginsberg Isn't Gay, the Sex of Sports, the Real Eunuchs of Constantinople, and a Gender Bender party with a cash bar and music by Alison Pipitone at 5:00pm. Click here for a full Festival schedule of events, many at Buffalo State College.

Finally, as though to toast this arts and cultural bonanza, Buffalo Beer Week kicks off on Friday evening at the Adam Mickiewicz Library and Dramatic Circle (612 Fillmore Avenue near the Broadway Market) and boasts a full line-up of brews.

This weekend's arts and cultural bonanza is reminiscent of those heady 1970s in Buffalo, when some of the greatest writers and poets of our time took turns at UB and beyond. I was an English major at the time, and failed to recognize the amazing riches to which I had access. Robert Creeley and his Black Mountain School of poetry. John Barth was just another professor. Allen Ginsberg turned up at the old Tralf and the One Eyed Cat quite regularly, often accompanied by Kerouac. New Music blossomed, powered by the nexus of UB and the BPO. The Albright-Knox overflowed with arts and shows and artists. Buff State spawned the School of Creative Problem Solving, and brainstorming was born.

Buffalo was spiraling into its infamous decline, but the arts flourished. How wonderful to see such a rich artistic tapestry in Buffalo on the rise.