O, Miami Poetry Month
/POETRY MONTH | PHOTO COURTESY O, MIAMI / GESI SCHILLING
The annual O, Miami poetry festival starts this Friday and runs through April with 30 events and 23 projects on a mission to put a poem in front of every one of Miami's residents. Among the projects are WLRN's Zip Odes, inviting residents to submit a poem about their zip code, a workshop on Japanese fish printing, an underwater pool meditation, a piano slam and much, much more.
Below is a list of our favorite events.
April 2 | Favorite Poem Project | 7pm–9pm at The Wolfsonian–FIU The Favorite Poem Project is dedicated to celebrating and documenting poetry’s role in the lives of Americans. Join us to celebrate the winners of Favorite Poem Project Florida with readings and screenings of Floridians reciting the poems they hold most dear.
April 3 | BFI and The Perfect Nothing Project | 12pm–2pm at Matheson Hammock
One in a series of workshops created by the Perfect Nothing Catalog, this one will teach about the art of Japanese fish printing.
April 6 | Current by Jillian Mayer | 7:30pm–8:30pm at The Standard Spa
A guided meditation session at the Standard Spa Miami Beach pool for a group of twenty to thirty strangers at sunset. Participants equipped with robes, blacked-out goggles, and snorkels will be handed a noodle float.
April 7 | PET by Rudi Goblen | 8pm–10pm at The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse
A theater work written and performed by Miami-based actor/writer/dancer, Rudi Goblen, PET is an interactive, physical one-man theatre piece set in a support group meeting for ex-lovers/serial monogamists and built from an array of interviews and shared experiences of the broken-hearted.
April 8 | Poetry in the Park | 7pm–9pm at Soundscape Park
Bring your blankets and picnic baskets to Miami Beach’s Soundscape Park for a Friday night reading under the stars featuring the nation’s frst Hispanic Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera. Vigía Inspired:
April 9 | Rhythm Arts Poetry | 6pm–9pm at Opa Locka ARC
The Rhythm Arts Poetry (“RAP”) Festival is a celebration of the completion of an 8-week long poetry program for Opa Locka middle schoolers led by Shaneeka “Poetry” Thomas and commissioned by O, Miami.
April 10 | The Golden Age of Islamic Poetry Workshop | 10am–12pm at Opa Locka ARC Created and led by poet Patrick Cox, the Golden Age of Islamic Poetry is a workshop that introduces participants to poetry classics of the Muslim world and invites them to try their hand at enduring forms from the Middle East.
April 11 | Oscar Wilde: The Ballad of Reading Gaol | 6pm–8pm at The Freedom Tower Illustrations, never-before shown to the public, from The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a story about the execution of a fellow inmate at the HM Prison Reading.
April 13 | Piano Slam 8 | 7:30pm–9:30pm at The Arsht Center
A classical/hip-hop mash up featuring acclaimed pianists Maarten van Veen and Bobby Mitchell, mixing up Brahms, Beethoven, and Bach with the beats of DJ Brimstone 127 and the debut works of Miami’s hot young poets.
April 15 | Building Bridges: Cuban Poetry | 7pm–9pm at Colonial Florida Church
A ground-breaking reading and round-table discussion about the future of Cuban and Cuban-American literature, moderated by award-winning poets José Kozer and Reina María Rodriguez. This event is in Spanish.
April 16 | Sounds of the Times: The Desert Music | 7:30pm–9:30pm at NWS Center
New World Symphony and Seraphic Fire performance featuring music by Steve Reich and poetry by Williams Carlos Williams.
April 18 | The Breakbeat Poets Performance | 4pm–6pm at RC Cola Plant
The Breakbeat Poets (Haymarket, 2015) is the frst poetry anthology by and for the hip-hop generation. Editor Kevin Covall and poet Malcolm London lead a hip-hop poetry cipher in front of Wynwood’s iconic street murals.
April 24 | Poetic Consumption: Date Night w. Gertrude Stein | 7pm–10pm at Little Farm House
A marriage of poetry, food, and community using the American writer Gertrude Stein as inspiration. Stein’s seminal book of lyrical prose, Tender Buttons, serves as the framework for a three-course poetic meal by Chef Evan Hanczor, from NY’s Egg.
April 28 | John Giorno and Obsolete Media Miami | 7pm–9pm at ICA Miami
O, Miami presents poet and performance artist John Giorno. Star of Andy Warhol’s seminal fllm Sleep (1963) and collaborator with everyone from William S. Burroughs to Robert Moog to Patti Smith.
April 30 | Miami Zine Fair | 11am–5pm at HistoryMiami Plaza
Celebrate our city’s independent print culture and explore zines from an array of local publishers and regional small presses.
April 30 | Working Poet Radio Show | 6pm–9pm at Little Haiti Cultural Center
Miami Book Fair and O, Miami combine forces to present a performance by Dark Noise Collective. Dark Noise is a nationwide, multiracial, multi-genre collective featuring some of the most exciting, insightful, and powerful poets writing today.