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In the middle of Poetry Month, the movie Poetry City premieres April 18, at the Koubek Center, as part of the Miami Film Festival and in the midst of Poetry Month.
The film centers around Oscar Fuentes and is an ode to Miami’s poetry scene and history.
He has a manual typewriter that he takes to presentations and writes poetry on the spot.
“I was baptized the Biscayne Poet.” he says. “I lived off Biscayne Blvd. for 30 years.”
Directed by Aaron Glickman, a native Miamian and lover of all things Miami, the film takes us past the glitz and glamour of the city show us the vibrant poetry community.
“Miami is considered a poetry city,” Fuentes says. “It’s a city of poets. It has had many poets, and it continues to sprout poetry groups. With social media, poetry is more accessible today.”
The film was shot last year and culminates at the Miami Book Fair at a presentation about Fuente’s book Poetry City.
“We covered the history of poetry in this community, going back a long way,” Glickman says.
He says the movie is also character driven, concentrating on Fuentes and Miami.
“I think we tell a really positive story about Miami, our hometown,” he says.
One of the scenes in the movie is his interaction with children from the Shake-a-Leg program.
“Oscar did a poetry workshop on a sandbar,” Glickman says. “It was a remarkable event. With the kids all surrounding Oscar, with words that the kids would shout out. Kids were touching a typewriter for the first time. They would touch it lightly as if they would break it.”
Glickman says it was a unique scene.
“The dynamic way Oscar deals with the kids,” he says.
There are many poets included in the film, but Glickman says Fuentes is the throughline.
“We show him in life, Oscar is the everyman,” he says.
The Miami-Dade Library System is also featured. Fuentes curates the library system’s vast art collection that is on display with pieces in every county library branch.
“I think it was beautiful we were able to incorporate, the permanent art collection,” he says. “It’s a visual narrative of Miami’s history. To show a glimpse of that in the film was super important.”
Miami-Dade County even has a Poetry Ambassador in the Mayor’s Office.
The film was sparked by the friendship between Glickman and Fuentes. Glickman would see Fuentes perform and was amazed that people would keep the poem that Fuentes wrote on the fly.
“It brought out who they are as humans,” he says. “People keep them, the take pictures.”
He began covering Fuentes as the typewriter poet and his unique interactions with people.
“Oscar is a cool guy, and we have known each other for so long,” he says. “It evolved. It took on a life of its own.”
Fuentes started writing poetry as a kid.
“Probably some poet come to my middle school and I picked up a pen writing for myself,” he says. “I worked through my insecurities as a kid. Poetry has been a rite of passage for me. My mother used to read poetry to me. I still read the same poets my mother used to read to me. Poetry spilled onto my family as well.”
Glickman says he wants people to entertain. And tell a compelling story about poetry.
Fuentes says his ultimate take away is that people are going to walk away with that Miami is a poetry city.
For information go to: https://miamifilmfestival.com
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