O -- What’s in a name?
A poetry festival by any other name would recite just as lovingly,
rhythmically, thoughtfully, profoundly, funkily, or-- well I think you get the
message. O’Miami’s been sweet.
Whether you realize it
or not, poetry is simmering on a front burner these days. Poem in Your Pocket Day is a national event which takes place on
April 18th, smack dab in the middle of National Poetry Month. PIYP began in New
York City in 2003 and embraced by the Academy of American Poets, went national in 2008, permitting
people throughout the country to get their bard on. With support from groups
like the National Writing Project, Figment, The Office of Letters and Light,
myriad events have sprung forth everywhere. The result? The United States has resuscitated
what may have seen as a patient on life support. Coffee houses, bakeries,
libraries and schools from sea to shining sea are in on the act. And we here in
Miami? We are buried in couplets, verses, sestinas, limericks, haiku, sonnets,
odes, paeans, and idylls as O’Miami makes another biennial appearance. Its basic
goal? For each Miami citizen to find a poem.
Produced by the
University of Wynwood and founded by Peter
Borrebach and P. Scott Cunningham, he who still produces it, O’Miami, in
partnership and sponsorship with John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation, Miami-Dade
County, The City of Miami Beach, and The Betsy Hotel, aims to weave poetry into
the fabric of the region for the month of April. It’s all massively ambitious,
and if you are tuned in to Miami’s artistic activities in even the most remote
way, you might encounter a reading, an open mic, a fused ballet performance, or
a trilingual spoken word onslaught somewhere through the end of the month. To
borrow the words of one of my own personal favorite poets: We got poets in the
livin’room gettin’ it on, and they ain’t leavin’ till six in the mornin’.
On
April 24th, there will be pop-up poetry at 800 Lincoln Road and rocking poetry
at Churchill’s in Little Haiti. On the 25th, there is a
performance/conversation at FIU’s Wolfsonian. On the 26th at the Freehand, you
can get a tattoo along with a poem and a cocktail. 2012 Kingsley Tufts
Award-winner Chase Twichell and deeply cool Miami-Dade professor Dr. Michael
Hettich read "for the dogs" on the 27th at The Betsy in a benefit to
convert all Miami-Dade animal shelters to "no-kill" facilities, this
event one of several at the Betsy that evening. The festivities conclude on
April 28th with an event at the New World Symphony Hall, where 2013
Presidential Inaugural poet Richard Blanco, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore, and
NBC's Megan Amram read aloud in the New World Symphony Hall. Given we live in
Miami, there is also an after party, make that O,fter Party, on the beach.
Like Macbeth, you might
consider that life's but a walking shadow, a
poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard
no more, or that it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing. If so, you really might want to make your way to some of
these activities in order to be inspired to put your anguish to everyday use.
Details can be found here: http://www.omiami.org.