From Valentine’s Day through the month of March, music monopolizes Miami. III Points, the Winter Music Conference, and ULTRA draw massive crowds from near and far. At the same time, crowds of Spring Break visitors descend upon Ocean Drive to strut their stuff, perfect their rioting skills, provide police heaps of overtime, and drive residents to remember how different their Where the Boys Are memories are. But that’s over, and we can move on to more intellectual things.
O, Miami builds community through literature, especially in April, when it takes over the city. This month long poetry festival, now in its 9th year, creates a delightfully simple aim: to have every single person in Miami-Dade rub up against a poem. Even the God of the mainstream media, the New York Times, recognizes this: “If you live in Miami and you do not read, recite or listen to a poem in the month of April, something has gone seriously wrong.”
A number of poetry-in-public-places projects are being repeated or are new. #dearestdrake is among the most inventive with the goal of getting Drake to post a pic of his favorite poem and tag @omiamifestival and #DearestDrake in order to create a moment of visibility for poetry. To do that, one must go on Instagram and catch the man’s attention. Some combination of maple syrup, Toronto Raptor gear, and a rocking bikini might do the trick.
Public libraries throughout the county will feature poets in a sort of residence; they say if you can check out a book, why not check out a poet? If you can offer the perspiration, they can add some inspiration.
Chiquita Poemas will take place in the produce aisle at your favorite nearby Sedano’s or Presidente. In order to make your papaya more poetic, you can add a fruit sticker poem-bomb. So after you grab a sheet of stickers at an O,Miami event, tape Coleridge to a carambola and be happy that you have introduced a perfect stranger to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner from 1834.
In Opa-Locka, Para Llevar O Para Tomar Aquí? is the question inspiring this paragraph: As Miamians, we know that pastelitos and coladas are ubiquitous at hair salons, birthday parties, workplaces and breakfast tables throughout Miami-Dade. Inherently, coladas and pastelitos are social experiences. To enhance that camaraderie we are celebrating the question Para Llevar O Para Tomar Aquí? as a sentimental talking point amongst patrons.
Poetry Parking Tickets will look like the real thing, but instead are poems. Check your windshield anywhere in Miami-Dade for a citation, anywhere but the Coral Gables Parking Garage spaces set aside for hybrids, because not even a gas guzzling Ford Expedition gets tagged for illegal parking in any of those spots. Coral Gables might consider poems instead of hybrid vehicle only signs in these spots, but of course, who REALLY cares about the environment as long as we have environmental signs?
A great number of events take place elsewhere throughout the month including the ever-popular Zip Odes, presented in kahoots with WLRN in which you praise or blast the place where you live. Full disclosure — I was a finalist coming out of 33157 a few years ago. So O, Miami; you are so Miami.
