Grain elevators--New York (State)--Buffalo]]> Grain trade--New York (State)--Buffalo ]]> Installations (Art)--New York (State)--Buffalo]]> “Banging, creaking, popping, sliding, scraping: every sound you could imagine. Sometimes it sounded like a person screaming, the way the wind moved through there.”

As a kid, Steve Baczkowski sneaked into Buffalo’s abandoned grain elevators to hear what his sax might sound like bouncing around their concrete canyons. So, when the longtime music curator at Buffalo’s contemporary arts center Hallwalls got a chance to keep watch over a robotic electronic sound installation inside a grain elevator, his sound nerd alarm bells rang. Steve camped out inside the Marine A elevator to watch over an art installation at what had become known as Silo City for the month of September 2019, playing his sax and didgeridoo, hearing ghostly sounds, diverting rain, and even witnessing a Buffalo Bills fan's life-affirming experience through art. Baczkowski was interviewed in early 2020 by Kate Kaye.

NOTE: This story features detailed descriptions of grain elevator acoustics and internal and external post-industrial environments.

]]> Kaye, Kate]]> https://redtailmedia.org/spilling-grain/]]> Baczkowski, Steve]]> eng]]> Grain elevators--New York (State)--Buffalo--Employees]]> Grain elevators--New York (State)--Buffalo]]> Grain trade--New York (State)--Buffalo]]> “Girls didn't go by the waterfront.”

Most women and girls who lived in Buffalo's First Ward -- the waterfront community at the heart of Buffalo's once-pulsating grain industry -- never went close to the waterfront or worked among the grain elevators. But the industry was ever-present in their lives, from the grain that their husbands, fathers and brothers blew off their clothes when they came home for lunch, to the grain they sneaked from railcars, to the flour bags that mothers sewed into girls' dresses. Bert Hyde was interviewed by Kate Kaye in Buffalo in February 2020.

]]> Kaye, Kate]]> https://redtailmedia.org/spilling-grain/]]> Grosvenor Room of B&ECPL (repository)]]> Hyde, Bert]]> eng]]> Grain trade--New York (State)--Buffalo]]> General Mills, inc.--History]]> “It's like walking next to a jet, that's how loud they are.... That thing was just whistling and screaming.”

Don Dodd got his start at General Mills in 1969 and worked there for decades, taking on all sorts of roles. For a time, he was a gunner - literally shooting Cheerios out of a pressurized chamber that created a deafening sound. In the early days churning out breakfast cereal and cake mixes, there were distinct roles for men and women at the plant. And, even though work there could be hot, noisy and grueling, Don and his coworkers often managed to find time for a break, sometimes dashing across the bridge for a 25 cent "adult beverage" at the nearby Swannie House. Don Dodd was interviewed by Kate Kaye in Buffalo in January 2020.]]> Kaye, Kate]]> https://redtailmedia.org/spilling-grain/]]> Grosvenor Room of B&ECPL (repository)]]> Dodd, Don]]> eng]]> Grain elevators--New York (State)--Buffalo--Employees]]> Grain elevators--New York (State)--Buffalo]]> Grain trade--New York (State)--Buffalo]]> Kaye, Kate]]> https://redtailmedia.org/spilling-grain/]]> Grosvenor Room of B&ECPL (repository)]]> Hyde, Bert]]> General Mills, inc.--History]]> Grain trade--New York (State)--Buffalo]]> Kaye, Kate]]> https://redtailmedia.org/spilling-grain/]]> Grosvenor Room of B&ECPL (repository)]]> Dodd, Don]]>