Wilder Buffalo

Photos by Carly Danek

Wilder Buffalo continues to grow and expand. We are grateful for the deep sense of community that is emerging after over two years of holding space for Wilder Buffalo within the Twin Citie’s urban wilds. We are additionally grateful for the support from Perennial Cycle, Oyate Hotanin, and Banjo Brothers who allow us to offer these events free to the public.

Those who are not familiar with Wilder Buffalo, it is a monthly concert / conversation that takes place on the land. Each month Strong Buffalo and I pick a new urban wilds location within the Twin Cities to hold the event. We are joined by two additional performers who share their work with the audience. At the conclusion of each event we hold a short community circle. As long as its not too cold….

In the beginning we started this event because we did not feel there was adequate community space available to process and collectively hold the complex circumstances we find ourselves in. Nor did we feel there were enough spaces where people could gather outside to experience music, poetry and art as a tool for healing and connection, rather than simply consumption and distraction.

If you would like to receive an invite to the next wilder buffalo event please send us an email via our contact page, requesting to be added to the Wilder Buffalo invite list.

We will leave you with a poem that Ben wrote early on in the development of Wilder Buffalo, which has become a bit of a manifesto for the event.

Earthen - Ben Weaver

We are here to create culture, 

not strategy or theory. 

We are here to offer up 

the accumulation 

of our undiluted existences, 

to collectively hold 

each others grief and joy.

None of us are flawed,

each of us holds inherent value 

that is non negotiable. 

We are not categories, 

we are expanses, 

terrain and capacities.

We are here to remember 

what the dominant power structure 

functions off of us forgetting. 

to learn from each other 

what that system 

depends on us not knowing. 

We are here to enliven 

our tendencies

towards the wayward, 

uncertain and strange,

to experience the paradoxes 

as harmony rather than repeat 

the inhumanities of the binary.

We are here to prove  

collective embodiment 

can dissolve 

the illusions of separation. 

We contain the same 

knowledge as trees 

who grow along 

the noisy roadways, 

if we remove the fear, 

love can get to work. 

There is justice in the dirt.