Silo City Video Archive

Sating in Place curated by The WASH Project’s Barrett Gordon brought together eight emerging artists in a site-specific, multimedia event for the August 31, 2024 Silo City Reading Series. The title Sating in Place is a tribute to the creative reuse of post-industrial places, and to rollerskating culture, which transcends place.

Megan Fernandes reads “How To Have Sex In Your Thirties (Or Forties)” at the August 31, 2024 Silo City Reading Series.

Diana Cao reads “Appendix” at the August 31, 2024 Silo City Reading Series

Cindy Juyoung Ok reads “River” at the July 27, 2024 Silo City Reading Series

Ariel Aberg-Riger’s animated projections on the side of the Marine A grain silo at the July 27, 2024 Silo City Reading Series.

Sun June performs “John Prine” at the July 27, 2024 Silo City Reading Series

Michael McGriff reads “Food Stamps” at the July 27, 2024 Silo City Reading Series

Fred Moten and Brandon Lopez perform at the June 15, 2024 Silo City Reading Series.

Christina Vega-Westhoff reads “elegy for breastfeeding” at the June 15, 2024 Silo City Reading Series.

Roger Reeves reads “Children Listen” from his book Best Barbarian at the August 26, 2023 Silo City Reading Series.

Ae Hee Lee reads “Self Portrait as Portrait” from her book Asterism at the August 26, 2023 Silo City Reading Series.

Ana Božičević reads “Waterfall” from her book New Life at the July 22, 2023 Silo City Reading Series.

Sean Thomas Dougherty reads “One Sentence on Pain” from his book Death Prefers the Minor Keys at the July 22, 2023 Silo City Reading Series.

Wild Pink performed a stripped down version of their song “Lake Erie” from their record Yolk in the Fur at the July 22, 2023 Silo City Reading Series.

Florist performed her song “As Alone” from her record Emily Alone at the August 27, 2022 Silo City Reading Series.

Solmaz Sharif reads “America” from her book Customs at the June 10, 2023 Silo City Reading Series.

Tyrone Williams reads “P R N D” from his book stilettos in a rifle range at the June 10, 2023 Silo City Reading Series.

Jericho Brown reads “Duplex (I begin with love)” from his book The Tradition at the August 27, 2022 Silo City Reading Series.

2022 Just Buffalo Poetry Fellow Ashia Ajani reads “aubade for rosemary eggs” from their forthcoming book Heirloom at the August 27, 2022 Silo City Reading Series.

Victoria Chang reads “Grief” from OBIT at the July 30, 2022 Silo City Reading Series.

Joe Hall reads “Fugue 184 | Ekpyrosis, The Watershed” from Fugue & Strike at the July 30, 2022 Silo City Reading Series.

Richie Hofmann reads “French Novel” at the June 11, 2022 Silo City Reading Series.

Albert Abonado reads “Luxury” at the June 11, 2022 Silo City Reading Series.

Danez Smith reads “my president” at the September 25, 2021 Silo City Reading Series.

Jazz DeNero reads “In the Museum” at the September 25, 2021 Silo City Reading Series.

Vievee Francis reads “Another Antipastorial” at the August 28, 2021 Silo City Reading Series.

Porsha Olayiwola reads “Plague of Blood Or The Murder-Drowning of Eugene Williams Sparks Race Riots for Eight Days” at the August 28, 2021 Silo City Reading Series.

Peter Gizzi reads “That I Saw the Light on Nonotuck Avenue” at the July 31, 2021 Silo City Reading Series. “That I Saw the Light on Nonotuck Avenue” appears in Gizzi’s collection, Now It’s Dark (Wesleyan University Press, 2020).

Laura Marris reads “like a good captain” at the July 31, 2021 Silo City Reading Series.

Nicole Sealey reads “Medical History” at the August 24, 2019 Silo City Reading Series. “Medical History” appears in Sealey’s collection, Ordinary Beast (Ecco, 2017).

Ocean Vuong reads “Headfirst” at the August 16, 2016 Silo City Reading Series. “Headfirst” appears in Vuong’s collection, Night Sky With Exit Wound (Copper Canyon Press, 2016).

Natalie Shapero reads “The Sky” at the July 16, 2016 Silo City Reading Series. “The Sky” appears in Shapero’s collection, Hard Child (Copper Canyon Press, 2017).

Rachel McKibbens reads “oath (blud litany)” at the June 2, 2018 Silo City Reading Series.

Mathias Svalina reads “from Thank You Terror” at the June 3, 2017 Silo City Reading Series.

Morgan Parker reads her poem “Matt” at the July 22, 2017 Silo City Reading Series.

Maggie Smith reads “Rain, New Years Eve” at the August 12, 2017 Silo City Reading Series. “Rain, New Years Eve” appears in Smith’s collection, Good Bones (Tupelo Press, 2018).

Hanif Abdurraqib reads “How Can Black People Write About Flowers At A Time Like This” at the July 21, 2018 Silo City Reading Series.

Marcus Jackson reads “Pardon My Heart” at the August 18, 2018 Silo City Reading Series. “Pardon My Heart” appears in Jackson’s collection, Pardon My Heart (Northwestern University Press, 2018).

Kazim Ali reads “Drone” at the August 18, 2018 Silo City Reading Series.

Bob Hicok reads “The Class Visit” at the June 1, 2019 Silo City Reading Series. “The Class Visit” originally appeared in American Poetry Review and in Hicok’s collection, HOLD (Copper Canyon Press, 2018).

Zachary Schomburg reads “The Fire Cycle” from Scary, No Scary (Black Ocean, 2009) during the June 20, 2015 Silo City Reading Series – accompanied by musician Small Houses.

About Silo City

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Past Readings

SILO CITY READING SERIES Ten Years of Poems in Grain Silos

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Where?

Silo City
85 Silo City Row
Buffalo, NY 14203

When?

The SILO CITY READING SERIES is scheduled during the summer months of June, July, and August, usually on Friday or Saturday evenings, with occasional special events at other times.

Accessibility Notice

Silo City is a non-traditional space. Please keep in mind it is an outdoor site with uneven terrain so appropriate footwear is recommended. There is also a lack of ADA accessibility, while steps have been made to make the site more accessible, things are happening incrementally on the over 100-year-old former industrial site.

“The old grain elevator that houses the Silo City Reading Series is unlike any other venue. It’s a stark, beautiful, formerly silent monument to Buffalo’s industrial past, thriving once again, inventively reinhabited by artists and performers and makers of all kinds. The performances I heard there, the percussive conversation of the crowd, are still echoing through my body. I felt I was listening to a community in the act of reimagining itself. Long live the Silos!” —Catherine Wagner <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/catherine-wagner" target="_blank">poetryfoundation.org/poets/catherine-wagner</a>
"Just Buffalo has created a special event with their Silo City Reading Series. It's a rare joy to perform on the same bill with writers from other mediums in exotic, repurposed farm architecture before a rapt and engaged audience of actual readers! Who knew an abandoned grain silo could feel just like a chapel where the appreciation of art and good writing is how we're saved?" —Simon Joyner <a href="https://simonjoyner.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">simonjoyner.bandcamp.com</a>
“I don't often think of space as having syntax, yet the grain silos were in motion the entire evening. I think of Plath's bees—movement was everywhere, and thus this was the perfect place to host a slew of artists and the community. The Silo City Reading Series isn't just another reading in another city, it is an important home for many, a place where a sense of belonging has been created; and I was honored to be a part of it." —Victoria Chang <a href="https://victoriachangpoet.com/" target="_blank">victoriachangpoet.com</a>
“The Silo City Reading Series is magical. It drops the artists & audience into a nexus of history, commerce, nature's reclamations, & the radical work of imagination. It demonstrates how the imagination can transform ruins into a cathedral echoing the ghostly sublime, &, by extension, how the imagination can, if we trust it, transform each one of us.”  —Mathias Svalina <a href="http://www.dreamdeliveryservice.com/" target="_blank">dreamdeliveryservice.com</a>
“What they make possible at the Silo City Reading Series is pure magic for artists and art lovers: literature and visual art and music all in a space unlike any other—sublime and ghostly and beautiful. In my short time in Buffalo, I felt so connected to my fellow artists and also to the people who gathered to experience it. This wasn’t a reading: it was a party, an event, a celebration of art and togetherness, of art as community and healing. I won’t ever forget it." —Richie Hofmann <a href="https://www.richiehofmann.com/" target="_blank">richiehofmann.com</a>
"Silo City is booming, and it’s acoustics are electric, echoey, a place with character and charm and spirit and noise. Ghosts abound. It's totally unnerving and disarming, and amazing." —Matt Hart <a href="http://www.forkliftohio.com" target="_blank">forkliftohio.com</a>
"The Silo City Reading Series was one of the most amazing events I've ever had the honor to sidle into. I felt like I was reading in another time all together. Somewhere both ancient and futuristic. I felt I was part of history." —Bianca Stone <a href="http://www.poetrycomics.org/" target="_blank">poetrycomics.org</a>
“The Silo City Reading Series is a very unique and intimate experience. The poet’s voice is amplified in myriad ways by the silo and creates an eerie effect that puts a spell on the audience. The audiences in Buffalo are one of a kind, so attentive and receptive and generous. Just Buffalo is a killer organization, directed by remarkable humans. So glad I got to do this. Thank you Just Buffalo!" —Peter Gizzi <a href="https://www.petergizzi.org/" target="_blank">petergizzi.org</a>
“Silo City is an incredibly special reading series. It’s a gift to local writers, to visiting writers, to the Buffalo community and the idea of community. It’s the buzzword enacted: generosity, exchange, embrace, effort, gratitude, experimentation, goodwill.” —Morgan Parker <a href="http://www.morgan-parker.com/" target="_blank">morgan-parker.com</a>
“Finally, a performance venue for poets that doesn’t just encourage, but truly emphasizes, embraces, and inspires the inherent performativity of poetry.” —Lillian-Yvonne Bertram <a href="https://www.lillianyvonnebertram.com/" target="_blank">lillianyvonnebertram.com</a>
"Noah Falck and his fine crew have created a performance venue that urges you to lean into the silence of the Silo and answer back. It is a space full of questions. As someone whose own work deals with labor I was utterly moved by this space once full of working folks. But don’t be fooled by its abandonment. This is a still worked in space. It is a space reclaimed by art workers and people who love language. It is a space that when you enter as either audience or performer that inhabits you with its absence and asks you to replace that absence with your heart’s own beating." —Sean Thomas Dougherty <a href="https://seanthomasdoughertyp.fatcow.com/" target="_blank">seanthomasdoughertyp.com</a>
“The Silo City Reading Series is part of Buffalo standing up and making a claim for itself and the joy of creation. While the setting’s unique, it’s the audience that makes any series pop, and the desire to come together around words and music and art is strong with this crowd, Obi Wan. Hell with Paris: this was my favorite cultural experience ever." —Bob Hicok <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/bob-hicok" target="_blank">poetryfoundation.org/poets/bob-hicok</a>
"One of the three best poetry reading locations in America." —Zach Savich <a href="http://www.zachsavich.com/" target="_blank">zachsavich.com</a>
"I did not expect to feel at home in the old abandoned silos of Buffalo—and yet while I was there, I was flushed with this sense of kinship, both with the people who made this space happen, but also with the silos’ initial ambitions, to nourish and feed the people of this country. The space reminded me, with its rusted elevators and shafts, that one can find familiarity, even comfort, in making something new, with others, out of what was once discarded—which is art at its most indispensable." —Ocean Vuong <a href="https://www.oceanvuong.com/" target="_blank">oceanvuong.com</a>
“The Silo City Reading Series puts on the kind of gorgeous, gracious, pulsing event that usually only happens in dreams or magazines. I couldn't believe how many people crossed the overgrown railroad tracks to stream into the belly of the silo for an evening where poetry, music, and installation art came together to make something else entirely. Every city should be so lucky as Buffalo.” —Natalie Shapero <a href="http://natalieshapero.com/" target="_blank">natalieshapero.com</a>
“The Silo City Reading Series is a unique opportunity for folks to commune with other artists across genre. This reading was, by far, one of the most aesthetically diverse and artistically stimulating evenings I've had in a long while... I'm sure that I'll return to the memory for inspiration." —Nicole Sealey <a href="http://nicolesealey.com/" target="_blank">nicolesealey.com</a>
“The Silo City Reading Series offers an unlikely home in an unlikely location. It is the perfect reading for those looking to break free of traditional reading spaces. I felt close to the room, its history and the people inside of it. May all of our old buildings be repurposed in a way which allows them to continue to feed vast communities of people."  —Hanif Abdurraqib <a href="http://www.abdurraqib.com/" target="_blank">abdurraqib.com</a>
“Because of the Silo City Reading Series, there is now as much beauty and language inside these silos as there ever was grain.” —Zachary Schomburg <a href="http://www.zacharyschomburg.net/" target="_blank">zacharyschomburg.net</a>
"The Silo City Reading Series is special. Not only is it a beautiful introduction to the city of Buffalo, and a continuation of its history of poetic invention and possibility, I heard myself and my work anew in its caverns. A gem of a reading series I wish I lived near." —Solmaz Sharif <a href="https://www.solmazsharif.com/" target="_blank">solmazsharif.com/</a>
“Silo City looks like a stage set for a post-apocalyptic zombie movie, but in the detritus and silos and rust of the last century, the beautiful denizens of Buffalo gather, and listen, their ears open as these silos to the open sky. The quieter and slower the voice, the more clearly it is heard in the echo of the silo. This is the gentle ghost-grain future rising out of the rude concrete brutalism of the past.” —Philip Metres <a href="https://philipmetres.com/" target="_blank">philipmetres.com</a>
"Reading poems in a grain elevator while rain fell outside was one of the most magical poetry experiences I've ever had. The audience was all-in, ready to share the experience. Buffalo has something truly special—enviable—in the Silo City Reading Series." —Maggie Smith <a href="https://maggiesmithpoet.com/" target="_blank">maggiesmithpoet.com</a>
“Silo City is incomparable: a brutalist grain silo made cultural cathedral beside the sliding waters of the Buffalo River. You should know that there’s no other venue for poetry like it. You should also know how thoroughly the organizers of Silo City care for their readers and performers. Behind the scenes, they nail a million little details, from lighting and sound design to concocting intriguing mixes of artists and packing the room with audiences eager to receive. It’s rare to find a space so hostile to habitation transformed into an enduring site of art-making and exchange—but that’s exactly what The Silo City Reading Series pulls off summer after summer. I’m writing this having just performed there. It’ll be hard to go back to any other stage." —Joe Hall <a href="https://joehalljoehall.com/" target="_blank">joehalljoehall.com</a>

Silo City Video Archive

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