The final installment of the 2017 Silo City Reading Series is not to be missed! If you've yet to attend one of these poetry readings at one of the most unique locations in Buffalo, then you're missing out on an extraordinary example of why Buffalo is a super cool city. Sponsered by Just Buffalo Literary Center, these events are free and take place inside an old grain mill. (Seriously!) Each event has poets, a musical act, and an artist from a visual or performative discipline. The following artists will be performing on August 12th.

Maggie Smith is the author of three books of poetry: Good Bones (Tupelo Press, September 2017); The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison (Tupelo Press, 2015); and Lamp of the Body (Red Hen Press, 2005). Her poems appear in Best American Poetry, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. In 2016 her poem “Good Bones” went viral internationally and has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. PRI (Public Radio International) called it “the official poem of 2016.”

Annette Daniels Taylor is the author of the poetry chapbooks, Street Pharmacist and other poetic tales, and Hush now poems to read aloud. An award winning playwright, poet, and community activist she is a filmmaker interested in the poetics of American public history. Annette’s art practice includes performance, poetry, film/video, sound, and voice. She is an Arthur A. Schomburg fellow with the Department of Media Study at the University at Buffalo; a Pink Door Poetry fellow; and lead teaching artist with Young Audiences WNY’s Underground Railroad Residency of Western New York program.

Bean Friend is a composer and multi-instrumentalist. In January 2016, Bean released the album,The Moving Decade, an ambient piano album recorded in the Marine A grain silo in Buffalo, NY. In August 2016, he released Sound-On-Film, a cinematic piano-based album.

Nancy Hughes is an educator, performer, choreographer and event organizer who co-facilitates regular events for contact improvisation and contemporary dancers. Hughes has been awarded grants from NYS DanceForce, Northampton Arts Council and Key Bank and has received sponsorship from Harold Grinspoon. Nancy Hughes produces the Tuesday Contemporary Dance Series, Buffalo Sunday Contact Improv Jam, Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts Youth Performance Workshop, Mission Improvable, and is currently working on a new guest artist series. Her work as a performer and choreographer has been performed across the U.S. as well as in Paris, France and Toronto. She can be seen performing in Buffalo with BCIJPG, Anne Burnidge Dance and others in theaters, museums, galleries, people’s homes and silos.