Spilling Grain – The real people of Buffalo’s grain elevators tell their stories

Have you ever wanted to go granular with grain silos? If so, you will want to attend an upcoming event called Spilling grain. The event will feature testimonies from former grain pickers, factory workers and others who lived and worked in Buffalo’s grain elevators. This humanist meeting will take place on Saturday June 8 in the Grosvenor Room of the Central Library, where speakers will discuss their interactions with iconic structures, many of which are still compromised.

In recent years, we’ve seen a growing adoration for our at-risk stock of historic silos and grain mills. At the same time, ADM senselessly demolished the Great Northern in 2022, thus depriving this city of part of its esteemed and very fragile architectural heritage. And while heartbreaking demolitions still take place, there are also success stories like the one we’re seeing in Silo City.

Now historians, researchers and those who have worked at the sites are coming together to discuss the nature of silos and grain mills, so we can all benefit from the debate.

The event will be moderated by Kate Kaye, a Buffalo native and longtime journalist, who led a series of audio conversations with those closest to the structures. While the in-person event will take place on June 8, the fascinating audio series will be available on many podcast channels (see below). Here are some examples of intimate audio stories: tiptoeing across a thick, frozen river to a whiskey-soaked lunch meeting, standing on grain piled so high it was like trudging through deep snow, spending a month camped in a leaking grain silo and fighting to make silos just… well-being.

For many people for more than a century, Buffalo’s grain elevators were not icons of industrial chic. These were not gritty settings for experimental poetry readings, nor places to zip line. And no, they definitely weren’t always painted to look like giant beer cans. Spilling Grain tells the story of what happened in and around these places before they became boat tour themes and apartment decors. Spilling Grain is a love letter to the people who make sense of Buffalo’s grain elevators by Buffalo native and longtime journalist Kate Kaye.

Join Spilling Grain creator Kate Kaye and Spilling Grain storytellers Joel Carter, Don Dodd and Lynda Schneekloth on June 8, 2-3 p.m. at the Buffalo and Erie County Central Library in downtown Buffalo.