Buffalo Extreme: Base

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The Buffalo All-Star Extreme cheer team grapples with the repercussions from a mass shooting at a nearby grocery store. Kristen Uroda for NPR hide caption

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Kristen Uroda for NPR

The Buffalo All-Star Extreme cheer team grapples with the repercussions from a mass shooting at a nearby grocery store.

Kristen Uroda for NPR

Ayanna Williams Gaines is the coach and founder of Buffalo All-Star Extreme, a Black competitive cheerleading and dance team from Buffalo, New York. Williams Gaines started the gym as a space for Black girls to feel safe and to thrive in the predominantly white world of cheer. But on May 14, 2022, a white supremacist came to a predominantly Black neighborhood on the east side of Buffalo and killed ten Black people at a grocery store just a few blocks away from the gym. In the wake of the massacre, feeling like a target, Williams Gaines and her cheer families are faced with the challenge of making sure their cheerleaders feel safe and confident, on and off the stage.

Special thanks:

• This episode featured music from Buffalo local Pr0 Social's new album, Things I've Buried.
• We also featured music from Stephen Vitiello, composer and sound artist known for his site-specific pieces. Buffalo Bass Delay was recorded in the empty grain elevators of Buffalo, NY.