Did you lose a loved one last year? O, Miami poetry festival will write a tribute
COVID-19 has left its mark around the world and here at home. So this year, the O, Miami poetry festival will pay tribute to what we’ve lost.
The annual festival, which started in 2011, aims to have everyone in Miami-Dade County encounter a poem during April, which is National Poetry Month. This year, among its many projects is “Remembrance to Order,” through which local poets will write works about those who died over the past year.
Miami-Dade residents who have lost someone (from COVID or any cause) can fill out a form at the O, Miami website, and the festival will assign a poet to write a poem in English or Spanish about the loved one.
Melody Santiago Cummings, the project’s creator, hopes the poems serve as a balm.
“We’ve had to restructure the way we gather and the way that we connect,” says Cummings, who is also managing director of O, Miami. “Even if someone wasn’t a direct casualty of COVID, over the past year there’s been such a void in being able to grieve properly. Maybe your Nana lived in another state, or someone went to the hospital or hospice, and you never got to say goodbye. There are so many stories and a depth of sadness. . . . . It’s a wonderful opportunity for a person who’s grieving to share the details of the person they love. Telling the stories brings them back, in a way.”
Connecting the people of Miami to words that matter has always been the mission of the festival, which is facing its second year under a pandemic and having to adjust accordingly. On the bright side, lessons have been learned.
“We’re never doing 30 days of Zoom programming again,” jokes founder P. Scott Cunningham.
Author readings, though, have never been the main focus of O, Miami, Cunningham says. And he’s right. There are some virtual readings this year, but the eclectic festival also relies on quirky events, workshops and projects that encourage participation, even if it’s just admiring a poem in the wild.
This year, you can sign up for virtual workshops like “For the Love of Khan,” in which attendees can write “Star Trek” related poems with poet Emma Trelles and artist Beatriz Monteavaro. You can nurture that sourdough starter you groomed so lovingly during lockdown at a poetry and baking series. You can wax poetic about your favorite place to eat or pay homage to your favorite Easter candy (Peeps, of course) via poetry, video, TikTok or old-school dioramas.
You’ll also find poems at bus stops and Metrorail stations, on community refrigerators, at the Fruit and Spice Park in Homestead. In Opa-Locka, the streets and sidewalks will be illuminated with poems written by residents. You might even find poems on bandages destined for the arms of Miamians receiving COVID vaccinations at Jackson Health Systems facilities.
The festival arrives at an uncertain time — the pandemic, after all, isn’t over — but it also arrives in the wake of what could be a cultural shift in poetry’s favor. Amanda Gorman wowed the country at the presidential inauguration in January, then again in February at the Super Bowl. If a poet can turn heads at a giant sporting event, what else is possible?
“A lot of people saw Amanda Gorman and had their eyes opened,” Cunningham says. “They realized, ‘Oh wait, this isn’t like the poems I was forced to critique in high school.’ You’re seeing a pop star in the form of a poet. People don’t realize there are poets like that out there, and she’s not the only one. . . . their minds were opened in a way they hadn’t been before. It will have ramifications for everyone.”
O, MIAMI POETRY FESTIVAL
When: April 1-30 For full list of events and projects, visit omiami.org
Connie Ogle: 305-376-3649, @OgleConnie
On this date:
In 1797, Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire received a patent for a washing machine.
In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, ruled 6-2 that Wong, who was born in the United States to Chinese immigrants, was an American citizen.
In 1935, the notorious Nazi propaganda film “Triumph des Willens” (Triumph of the Will), directed by Leni Riefenstahl, premiered in Berlin with Adolf Hitler present.
In 1941, novelist and critic Virginia Woolf, 59, drowned herself near her home in Lewes, East Sussex, England.
In 1969, the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, died in Washington, D.C., at age 78.
In 1977, “Rocky” won best picture at the 49th Academy Awards; Peter Finch was honored posthumously as best actor for “Network” while his co-star, Faye Dunaway, was recognized as best actress.
In 1979, America’s worst commercial nuclear accident occurred with a partial meltdown inside a reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania.