ABOUT

Started in May 2013, the SILO CITY READING SERIES has brought together acclaimed poets, musicians, and artists for a one-of-a-kind multidisciplinary cultural experience at Silo City–a complex of historic grain silos along the Buffalo River. 

PRESS

Poetry Society // Lit Hub // Book Riot // Fear No Lit // The Buffalo News // Buffalo Spree

Testimonials
Megan Fernandes

"This was one of the best reading experiences I've ever had and I can feel not only the city's history, but the history of all the poets who have read here before me, looking up and out, into the endless echo of the space."

—Megan Fernandes

Hanif Abdurraqib

“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

Ocean Vuong

"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

Cindy Juyoung Ok

"After reading in the Silo City Reading Series, I no longer feel poems can be wholly felt or known in a four-walled square. The space offers calming and haunting, reiteration and singularity—and a home to share in community that experiences uniquely, together, for a night and its memory. The intentional series shares the aliveness of Buffalo’s art and history with the world."

—Cindy Juyoung Ok

Victoria Chang

“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

Morgan Parker

“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

Nicole Sealey

“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

Maggie Smith 

“Reading poems in a grain silo 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

Richie Hofmann

“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

Natalie Shapero

“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

Peter Gizzi

“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."

—Peter Gizzi

Mathias Svalina

“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

Bob Hicok

“The Silo City Reading Series is part of Buffalo standing up and making 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

Philip Metres

“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

Zach Savich

“One of the three best poetry reading locations in America.”
—Zach Savich

Bianca Stone

“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

poster design: Joel Brenden