Uncrowned Community Builders

Mr. Trapp was a longtime novelist, jazz radio host, and active in Buffalo's African American community. During the 1970s and 80s Mr. Trapp was host of "Street Life" a jazz program on WBFO-FM, broadcasting from the University at Buffalo. His struggle to write and obtain a publisher for "Life Ainââ?¬â?¢t Nuttinââ?¬â?¢ but a Winterââ?¬â?¢s Song", his first novel on growing up in poverty on the East side was the subject of a stage play "Co-Sign" produced by the Buffalo Ensemble Theatre in 1984 and again in 1987.

In 1974 Trapp became a mentor for youths in the Black community. He volunteered as a lecturer at the Buffalo Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts. He then tutored children in reading and writing at the Langston Hughes Institute. At the time of his death he was working to establish a Youth Artist Award. Many of his stories and essays were published by the Arts Council of Buffalo and Erie County.

In 1977 he attended the Mac Dowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire where he won the Mac Dowell Medal; completed his first novel and began his second "Wild Night Came Callin". His later novels included "Back Street Thunder", "The Battle for Atlantic City", "New Rules of the Game" and "In Search of the New Legends". He also spent four years researching "The Ghost of Yesterday" a biography of Billie Holliday.

Mr. Trapp was fifty three years of age at the time of his passing on August 18, 1995. He is buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery.