Stay Gold! Poetry in Pajamas! O, Miami Poetry Festival 2019
Fruit stickers! Pastelito wrappers! In a papaya field! Discover poems in the most unexpected places all month as part of the O, Miami Poetry Festival. Here are some of this year’s food and drink-themed projects. For full details, visit omiami.org.
#StayGold at Robert Is Here
The iconic South Dade fruit stand, Robert Is Here, has partnered with O, Miami on previous projects (look in the parking lot for Randy Burman’s “Thou Shall Not Yield” Department of Poetry Works Sign from the 2014 festival). But this one is a big one. STAY GOLD, their first-ever permanent sculpture, is 12 ft x 40 ft work by Miami-based artist Jessy Nite in guava-colored pink, erected in the middle of their field populated by papayas and sunflowers. The family business at the corner of SW 344 St. and 192 Avenue is more than a destination for its tropical fruit shakes and products, it’s the gateway to Everglades National Park and other attractions.
“When they came to us with the idea, we thought it would be a cool way to show off South Dade and the Everglades,” says Heather Moehling of Robert is Here. “And art is a big thing with us in the way we design and display our fruit. We love to paint the world with fruit!”
To artist Jessy Nite, the iconic fruit stand is the perfect place for her artwork. “It’s really important to what South Dade is,” she says. “We invite the community here."
Visitors can do more than see and touch the project – they can taste it, too. Robert Is Here created the StayGold smoothie – a combination of mango, papaya, passion fruit, strawberry and honey – “to really encapsulate the project,” says Moehling.
This isn't the only poetry project Robert Is Here is participating in. Look for poetry fruit stickers on some of their tropical fruits, courtesy of O, Miami.
Poetry In Pajamas
Put on your pajamas and join us for a fabulous evening of poetry under the stars at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden. Brothers Sam, 10, and Simon, 7, will lead the second Poetry in Pajamas on Friday, April 12 from 6-8:30.
Staged in a dreamy canopy bed at the enchanted Miami Beach Botanical Garden, Poetry in Pajamas is an open mic for children of all ages to recite poetry in their pajamas. There’s live music from Afrobeta, treats from Cao Chocolates, cereal and milk from Edible South Florida, crepes from the Crepemaker, something for grownups to drink, kid entrepreneurs and activities too.
Poetry in Pajamas is free but sign up here.
Here are some edible highlights of O, Miami this month:
Chiquita Poems
When? All April
Find a poem on a passionfruit! Look in your market’s produce section for these colorful stickers with poems on them.
¿Para Llevar O Para Tomar Aquí?
When? All April
When you pick up pastelitos for the office, pay attention to the bilingual thought starters on the wax paper they’re wrapped in. To go or to read here?
Poet in Decadence at Gramps, Wynwood
When? All April
The last seat at the bar is reserved for a poet-in-decadence, who gets a beer for every poem she or he writes on a cocktail napkin.
Sangam Garden + Ishio Hutchinson
When? April 20
Enjoy a five-course plant-based South Indian dinner with poet Ishio Hutchinson at Naomi’s Garden Restaurant and Lounge.
Kendall Sidewalks
When? Now
Fragments of local poems are imprinted in concrete, like this one off Bird Road and SW 149 Ave.:
Kendall Soccer Park,
Indian Hammocks Park...
I
could start working out, pero coming back home
Abuelita tiene tamales.
– Javmar Perez-Contreras
