About Us

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Pure Ink Poetry is the only monthly running poetry slam in Buffalo, NY and is nationally certified by Poetry Slam Incorporated. 

 

Pure Ink Poetry was created by Buffalo Poet Brandon Williamson on January 11, 2012.  With the support of Buffalo Graphic Design and Studio Artist Julia Williamson and Chicago Multimedia Performance and Visual Artist Bianca L. McGraw, Brandon Williamson has helped to engage a resurgence of poetry in the Buffalo area.  Pure Ink Poetry continues to develop a collective community of poets, artists and performers while providing a creative and encouraging space for open mics and a fun and competitive setting for slams.

Pure Ink hosts both an Open Mic and poetry slam every month. The Pure Ink Poetry Open Mic will take place every 2nd Sunday of the month. The Pure Ink Poetry Slam will take place every 4th Sunday at The Gypsy Parlor (376 Grant Street, Buffalo, NY 14213) starting at 6:00pm.
 

Feel free to join us anytime for a night of inspiration, poetry, music and good times.

Pure Ink Poetry wants to encourage and inspire others to engage in literature, poetry, spoken word, artistic performance and self-expression.  Pure Ink Poetry is focused on 4 Core Concepts:
 

• Providing creative and poetic spaces for open mics and poetry slams
• Providing opportunities for local area poets and performers to showcase their work
   
• Providing engaging workshops in writing and performance at schools, community centers, various organizations, colleges/universities, etc 
   
• Providing an outlet for people to express themselves through writing, poetry and performance

Pure Ink Poetry has been invited to perform and conduct workshops for diversity events like, but not limited to, cultural festivals, LGBTQA awareness events, social justice events, community advancement events and fundraisers.  Pure Ink Poetry has worked with a variety of community organizations that include Big Brother/Big Sisters, Crossroads Springs- Africa, Hispanic Women’s League, Music is Art Festival and Artvoice just to name a few. At every event, we have guests who have never experienced our style of performance poetry. Being a novel form of expression to them, many of our community members are exposed to an art form they did not consider as a possibility.