Connection + Engagement
Wilder Buffalo
Wilder Buffalo is a monthly event held outside on the land. Hosted by Ben Weaver, Strong Buffalo, and Oyate Hotanin (“Voice of the People”) with support from Banjo Brothers and Perennial Cycle. Each month we pick a new urban outdoor location in the Twin Cities, MN. Part concert, part conversation, part community circle, we gather as a group to practice holding inclusive space deepening our relationships to each other and the land.
Climate Grief/Joy Facilitation
In collaboration with schools, nonprofit partners, and community groups, Ben collaborates to use poetry, song, and story mixed with circle practice to help contextualize the grief and complex emotions we experience as a result of climate change. These issues are too large to be held individually. The role of this work is to begin resourcing ourselves to hold these complexities communally rather than individually.
Buffalo Show
Every other month, on the 2nd Tuesday, Buffalo Weavers performs at Bryant Lake Bowl in collaboration with Oyate Hotanin. The event weaves guest artists with live musical performances, alongside storytelling by Change Narrative, to spark curiosity around climate change and what it looks like to move to towards repair. Hard things are more manageable when we remember, together, that we are in it together.
Public Speaking
The work Ben does extends far beyond music and poetry — for which he’s best known. Today, Ben is hired by companies to create experiences and speak to audiences, large and small. Whether sharing stories about bicycle travel, community building, water, or climate change advocacy, he shows up as a catalyst for change to help grow and extend brands, both in the for-profit and nonprofit world.
To connect about collaborating on a speaking engagement with your network, reach out here.
PRINTING + POETRY
Bike Wilder Poetry Subscription
Don Olsen suggested that because most people don’t read a full book of poems, we end up with stacks and stacks of unread books. The Bike Wilder Poetry Subscription is made under this inspiration as a 12 month subscription, consisting of one poem in book / broadside or other hand made form each solstice and equinox. The idea being that it’s easier and often more enjoyable to read a book that is only one poem long.
Each poem is written, handset, letterpress printed and bound by Ben Weaver.
music
Ben Weaver
Ben has twenty years of music touring around the world, performing in venues large and small, conventional and unconventional, with nine released nine studio albums. Music writers over the years have compared his vocal style to Leonard Cohen and the quality of his extraordinarily dense and literary-quality lyrics to some of the most celebrated songwriters in the world. A Ben Weaver performance can be custom-crafted to fit your needs. From house concerts to free-range performances in unique spaces, backed by a full band or alone with his guitar, the experience will be memorable.
Buffalo Weavers
The Buffalo Weavers music project is a collaboration between Ben Weaver and Strong Buffalo. Named the best new duo through the 2023 Native American Music Award, they offer music and poetry on the land and water, stirring our wild spirits and nurturing relations.
Film
Edgelands
Edgelands, directed by Ben Weaver, is a land and water based film series applying “relationship” as a method of storytelling. Through regional packraft and bicycle journeys within the Mississippi River watershed within a 100 mile radius of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metro area, Edgelands explores the stories, histories, and relationships of the people who live here. Currently in production, stay tuned for completion date.
Music for Free (2018)
Music for Free follows Ben Weaver as he rode down the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route 2,700 miles from Banff Canada to the US-Mexico border offering free concerts to the people in the communities along the way, while simultaneously searching for the common threads that connect all human beings.