Miami's Poetry Moment

The Culture Edit, April 15th-28th

Author

Susan Bannon
April 14, 2024

April is National Poetry Month, but Miami really makes it a thing with our annual O, Miami Poetry Festival. The goal of the festival is to have every resident of Miami-Dade county encounter a poem this month - on billboards, buildings, umbrellas, and even fruit at the supermarket. You can also get into the game yourself by writing and submitting poetry inspired by our beautiful city, the natural wonders around us, or your own zip code. I’m including several of their events in the newsletter below (the poetry scavenger hunt in the Grove sounds particularly fun), but you can check out everything they have going on here.

Headlining this week’s performances, Miami City Ballet caps off its season with a blockbuster production of Swan Lake, featuring more than fifty dancers, gorgeous costumes, and MCB’s fantastic orchestra performing Tchaikovsky’s glorious score. It’s the most beloved ballet in the world for a reason, so if you’re going to see one dance performance this year, make it this one.

Let's get planning...

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Wednesday, April 17th

Oolite in the Gables: By and Through the Waters

Oolite Arts, which provides local artists with studio and gallery space on Miami Beach, is partnering with real estate group Terranova to bring the same idea to Coral Gables. The partnership will provide studios to 12 local artists and showcase the work of Oolite artists inside and outside the space at 255 Alhambra. The grand opening and inaugural exhibit of this start-up will be By and Through the Waters, a group show of selected Oolite artists curated by Instagram art tracker Dainy Tapia (follow Dainy on Instagram @art.seen.365 if you want to keep up with everything happening in the South Florida art scene).

Opening Reception 6-9pm, 255 Alhambra, Free

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Thursday, April 18th

The Lehman Trilogy - Final Weekend!

This week is your last chance to catch GableStage’s The Lehman Trilogy, an epic piece of storytelling that tracks three members of the Lehman family through 163 years of history, right up to the devastating collapse of their family firm, Lehman Brothers. Beginning in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1844, a Bavarian immigrant dreams of a better life. In 2008, his descendants unleash an unprecedented financial disaster. The story in between is both an intimate family saga and a colossal exposé of unquenchable capitalism.

7:30pm, GableStage, $55-$60

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Also on April 18th: opening night of Miami City Ballet’s Swan Lake, a poetry happening at The Bass Museum, a new exhibit of work by multimedia artist Moira Holohan at Emerson Dorsch, an artist panel on Carlos Alfonzo: Late Paintings at Books & Books, and a performance of Dangerous Days at the Colony Theater.

Friday, April 19th

Miami City Ballet: Swan Lake

Sometimes ballet is about spectacle (The Nutcracker). Sometimes it’s a celebration of pure dance (Ballanchine’s Agon, for example) or driven by powerful emotions (Carmen, Giselle). And sometimes it’s everything all at once. That would be Miami City Ballet’s Swan Lake, landing at the Arsht Center this weekend with everything a ballet lover could ask for in one fluttering, soaring, tragic evening, with sparkling new choreography by the world’s foremost living dance maker, Alexei Ratmansky. You don’t want to miss this one!

7:30pm, Ziff Ballet Opera House at the Arsht Center, $44-$253

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Also on April 19th: biographer Brad Gooch discusses his new book on Keith Haring at the Rubell Museum, plus performances of Dangerous Days at the Colony Theater and The Lehman Trilogy at GableStage.

Saturday, April 20th

Late Night: Drake X. Tchaikovsky

Late Night with New World Symphony is back, turning the concert hall into a club with a thrilling mashup of two hopeless romantics separated by almost a century: Drake and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. For one night only, NWS—along with conductor-creator Steve Hackman, vocalists and a rapper—weaves 22 Drake songs, from “Started from the Bottom” to “Marvin’s Room,” into Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony in every way imaginable. Roam the dance floor to be up close to the performers or immerse your senses in the lounge vibe from a seat upstairs. According to the program notes, Drake himself will not be in attendance, but you never know with that guy.

9pm, New World Center, $30

Neighborhood: Miami Beach

Nearby Eats: Zaytinya, Tropezón, Casa Tua | Drinks: Medium Cool, Water Lion at the Sagamore

Also on April 20th: A lot! We have an opening reception at ICA Miami for three new exhibits; Miami City Ballet’s Swan Lake; a book talk with bestselling author Anne Lamott; a poetry scavenger hunt in Coconut Grove; Martha Redbone’s mix of blues and folk music at the Moss Center, plus performances of Dangerous Days and The Lehman Trilogy.

Sunday, April 21st

Miami Symphony Orchestra Season Finale

The Miami Symphony Orchestra has been bringing orchestral music to Miami in parks and smaller venues throughout the spring and now finishes out its season in grand style at the Arsht Center. For the performance, Itzhak Perlman star student KJ Macdonald joins MISO for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, a showcase for his sparkling technique. Also on the program, Maestro Eduardo Marturet will be conducting his own arrangement of a piece by Anton Webern and Sibelius’ Symphony No. 7.

6pm, Knight Concert Hall at the Arsht Center, $39-$139

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Also on April 21st: final performances for Swan Lake and The Lehman Trilogy, a guided hike and poetry workshop in Homestead, and a performance of Dangerous Days at the Colony Theater.

Happening NEXT Week:

Because maybe your friends are busy this week. Or you're busy this week. Or this week just seems too soon to pull your act together and make a plan.

Wednesday, April 24th

O, Miami “Zip Odes” Finale at Vizcaya

Zip Odes is a collaboration between O, Miami and WLRN that invites Miami residents to submit a poem about their zip code using the numbers as the structure (meaning if your zip code is 33133, your poem has 3 words on the first line, 3 on the second, 1 on the third… you get the picture). At the annual Zip Odes Finale, hosted by Vizcaya, awards are given and poems are read and wine is complimentary. You still have time to submit your own zip ode, by the way, so sharpen those pencils.

6-9pm, Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, $5-$10

Neighborhood: Coconut Grove / Brickell

Nearby(ish) Eats: head north to Edge Brasserie or LPM, or south to Bayshore Club or Regatta Grove (those places should have you covered for drinks, as well).

Also on April 24th: Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon performs with Amernet String Quartet at the Wolfsonian and FilmGate Miami’s Comedy Festival screens the best comedic short films from local filmmakers.

Thursday, April 25th

Dangerous Days

Miami New Drama presents Dangerous Days, a new play by Nicholas Griffin, based on his acclaimed nonfiction book, The Year of Dangerous Days: Riots, Refugees, and Cocaine in Miami 1980. The story tracks the investigative work of Miami Herald reporter Edna Buchanan, who follows a tip in 1980 that leads her on a trail ending in murder, riots, and the city on fire.

8pm, Colony Theater, $46-$76

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Also on April 25th: Books & Books hosts award winning writer Leila Philip to discuss her new book on beavers (yes, beavers) and the folks that hope these industrious rodents can save our ecological future (the beaver believers - I’m not making this up).

Friday, April 26th

Seraphic Fire: Mid-Century Modern

Seraphic Fire is truly one of Miami’s cultural gems, not just for their impeccable artistry, but also for their inspired musical selections. Typically focusing on rare baroque and classical work, they’re mixing it up with this concert of 20th century pieces for a cappella chorus. You can check out a Spotify sampling of the program at the link above.

8pm, Church of the Little Flower, $53

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Also on April 26th: Miami New Drama’s Dangerous Days at the Colony Theater and Poetry in Pajamas, a poetry open-mic for kids at the Miami Beach Botanical Garden.

Saturday, April 27th

Nu Deco Ensemble with Emily King & Durand Jones

Nu Deco Ensemble brings its genre-bending talents to the Arsht Center for this packed program of collaborations and new music. A world premiere orchestral work by multi-instrumentalist and composer Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, who has performed with Shakira, Wyclef Jean, and many others, headlines the program. R&B sensation Durand Jones, of Durand Jones & the Indications, and Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Emily King will both have special collaborations with the ensemble, and the music of Rihanna will get the typically adventurous Nu Deco orchestral treatment.

8pm, Knight Concert Hall at the Arsht Center, $35-$115

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Also on April 27th: readings of four fast and funny short plays around the theme of “Critters” on Key Biscayne, Miami New Drama’s Dangerous Days at the Colony Theater, and the chance to Meet a Poet at Books & Books.

Sunday, April 28th

The Third Man: 75th Anniversary Restoration

Coral Gables Art Cinema is celebrating the 75th anniversary of The Third Man, with a special screening of the film in glorious 4K resolution. Considered one of the finest films ever made, and filmed on location in bombed-out postwar Vienna, The Third Man features a mesmerizing Orson Welles in his best role, a gripping story by Graham Greene, an iconic score, and some of the most legendary shots in film history. This restored print brings its famous shadows and angles into sharp focus for the big screen, so if you’ve only seen it on the small screen in your living room, or never seen it at all, you’re in for a real treat.

12pm, Coral Gables Art Cinema, $12

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Also on April 28th: Decomposition Compositions - a poetry workshop that involves compost somehow, a performance of Dangerous Days, and another Meet a Poet event at Books & Books.

Planning Ahead:

Miami's most anticipated events sell out and those new restaurants you want to try book up. Here are a couple of upcoming events you need to lock down now...

Saturday, May 4th

MTT and Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Hailed as a “master colorist,” “titanic force,” and “a complete triumph,” pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet joins New World Symphony for a highly anticipated performance of Ravel’s Piano Concerto. Also on the program, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15. Beloved conductor and co-founder of New World Symphony Michael Tilson Thomas will be at the podium, so this is sure to be a hot ticket.

8pm, New World Center, $40-$175

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Nearby Eats: Joliet, Barceloneta, Zaytinya | Drinks: MILA, Water Lion at the Sagamore

Tuesday, May 28th

An Evening with Author Kevin Kwan

Books & Books presents an evening with Kevin Kwan, internationally bestselling author of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy, one of the most successful series in recent publishing history. (In 2018, the trilogy held the #1, #2, and #3 spot on the New York Times bestseller list simultaneously and the movie adaptation was the highest grossing romantic comedy in over a decade.) Kevin will be discussing his new book, Lies and Weddings, along with his publisher, Doubleday’s Todd Doughty. Lies and Weddings will be available for purchase at the event. Rsvp required.

7pm, Coral Gables Congregational Church, Free

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

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