Winter Rituals

The Culture Edit, February 10th-23rd

Author

Susan Bannon
February 09, 2025

The 61st annual Coconut Grove Arts Festival runs from February 15th-17th.

Along with typically gorgeous weather, President’s Day brings Miami two of our biggest annual events: the International Boat Show and the Coconut Grove Arts Festival, with attendance topping 100,000 for each.

Personally, I’ve always been amazed at how the boat show gets hundreds of boat slips built and then broken down, seemingly overnight. This year’s event will take place in six different locations from Downtown to the Convention Center, including over the bay between the MacArthur and Venetian Causeways. If you’re planning to be anywhere near that area between Wednesday and Sunday, I’d take a look at the event map here.

Starting Saturday, the 61st edition of the Coconut Grove Arts Festival takes over the bayside parks for three days of art activations, performances, copious festival food, and the ever popular “Arts & Drafts” beer garden. The CGAF has always felt more like a community festival than an Art Basel-style art fair, but that is central to its charm. Whether or not you plan to attend, I wouldn’t recommend driving into the Grove this weekend.

Let’s get planning...

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Ongoing Theater

Bad Dog - Final Week!

Miami New Drama presents Bad Dog, a world premiere play by Harley Elias skewering Miami’s contemporary art scene (after last year’s Museum Plays and Gablestage’s Laughs in Spanish, I’m sensing a trend here). The plot follows a performance artist who’s taken up residency in a Miami art gallery to live as a dog for a month, biting visitors and causing chaos within the gallery staff.

Performances through February 16th, Miami New Drama at the Colony Theatre, $47-$77

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Appropriate

Gablestage presents “one helluva family reunion” with Appropriate, the Tony Award-winning play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. The plot follows the estranged members of the Lafayette clan, who gather at the family’s crumbling homestead to argue over their recently deceased father’s effects. Turns out Daddy had some secrets, and once his collected possessions spill the beans, the reunion takes a turn for the explosive. Hailed as “a brilliant, blistering, outrageous play” by The New York Times, you don’t want to miss this one!

Performances through February 23rd, Gablestage at the Biltmore, $40-$60

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Lincoln Road Hustle - Final Week!

In the depths of the pandemic, Miami New Drama triumphed with The Seven Deadly Sins, an innovative roving theater piece set in shuttered Lincoln Road storefronts. Last year, they brilliantly staged a series of short plays in The Rubell Museum for The Museum Plays. Now, MiND is bringing a similar concept to Lincoln Road Hustle, a new play co-written by Billy Corben (Cocaine Cowboys). Staged in secret locations - shops, restaurants, public spaces - along Lincoln Road, the audience will be “eavesdropping” on the actors. The plot features a massive casino and real estate deal that could change Miami Beach forever, and all the hustlers in its orbit. How Miami is that?

Performances through February 16th, Miami New Drama at the Colony Theatre, $45-$95

Jersey Boys

The “Iconic Season” at Actor’s Playhouse continues with Tony Award-winning musical Jersey Boys, a juke box crowdpleaser that tracks the rise of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The story unfolds through each band member’s perspective, featuring their 1960’s hits “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

Performances through February 23rd, Actor’s Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, $85

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Wednesday, February 12th

An Evening with Geraldine Brooks

Books & Books is thrilled to present an evening with Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March and Year of Wonders, discussing her new memoir, Memorial Days. In 2019, Brooks lost her husband of thirty years, fellow author and journalist Tony Horwitz, to a sudden heart attack. Not feeling like modern life had left her with enough space to mourn, Brooks took herself to a remote island off the Australian coast to write, process her loss, and begin rebuilding. Brooks will be in conversation with local literary hero Mitchell Kaplan, founder of Books & Books and co-founder of the Miami Book Fair.

7pm, Books & Books Coral Gables, $28 admits two and includes one copy of Memorial Days

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Thursday, February 13th

Locust Projects: Jaye Rhee and Wendy Wischer

Locust Projects, whose gigantic new warehouse space in Little River makes it Miami’s largest art incubator, opens two new large-scale exhibitions with one of its signature (free) parties. Visitors entering the Main Gallery will find Jaye Rhee: Fragile Terrain, an installation of 600 carefully crafted pixelated paper cubes and 100 rounded paper objects, all hand-folded. In the Project Room will be Wendy Wischer: Open Water, an immersive sound and video installation reflecting the vast seas and the ocean within us.

Opening Reception 6-9pm, Locust Projects, Free

Neighborhood: Little River

Also on February 13th:

Friday, February 14th

Miami City Ballet: Winter Mix

Long story ballets, like Giselle and Swan Lake, are audience favorites the world over, but I personally prefer Miami City Ballet’s eclectic “mix” programs that showcase their sparkling technique and athleticism on more contemporary work. Their Winter Mix this year brings us a world premiere ballet (as yet unnamed) by boundary-pushing choreographer Pam Tanowitz, complementing two pieces by the legendary Balanchine. Performances through Sunday.

7:30pm, Ziff Ballet Opera House at Adrienne Arsht Center, $55-$255

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Also on February 14th:

  • Celebrate Valentine’s Day at the Miami Beach Bandshell with Locos por Juana’s Locos Por Marley: Lovers Rock, honoring the timeless love songs of Bob Marley, at 8pm.

Saturday, February 15th

Jon Lehrer Dance Company

Sanctuary of the Arts welcomes the Jon Lehrer Dance Company for its Miami debut. Based in New York, the JLDC tours around the world to rave reviews (“breathtaking physical excitement” says Dance Magazine). The company’s repertoire fuses jazz and modern styles with a dynamic athleticism that walks the line between art and entertainment.

8pm, Sanctuary of the Arts, $30

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

Also on February 15th:

  • Maestra Sabrina Maria Alfonso and the South Florida Symphony Orchestra present an evening of Berlioz and Strauss at New World Center, at 7:30pm.

  • Miami City Ballet presents its Winter Mix program for a second performance at the Arsht Center, at 7:30pm.

  • Siudy Garrido, one of the most exciting international flamenco performers today, brings her virtuosic footwork and original flamenco compositions to the Moss Center, at 8pm.

Sunday, February 16th

Chamber Music: Dvořák + Ravel

New World Symphony welcomes Amihai Grosz, founding member of the Jerusalem String Quartet and now Principal Viola of the Berlin Philharmonic, for an afternoon of chamber music. On the program will be a performance of Maurice Ravel’s only string quartet (entitled “String Quartet”) and Dvořák’s intense Piano Trio No. 3.

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Nearby Eats: Paya, Tropezón, Blue Ribbon Sushi | Drinks: Sweet Liberty, Water Lion at the Sagamore

Also on February 16th:

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, February 19th

New Music Miami Festival: Chen-Hui Jen

Florida International University celebrates the 28th anniversary of its New Music Miami ISCM Festival with a concert by award-winning Taiwanese composer, poet, and pianist Chen-Hui Jen. Chen-Hui’s compositions, for both traditional and electronic instruments, strive to create an imaginative, spiritual, and poetic space. Miami-based composer and computer musician Jacob David Sudol will also be on hand to collaborate with Chen-Hui for a night of musical innovation.

7pm Pre-Concert Discussion, 7:30pm Concert, Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU, Free

Neighborhood: South Beach, South of Fifth

Also on February 19th:

Thursday, February 20th

Museum and a Movie at the Wolf

A panel from Harry Clarke’s Geneva Window (1930), now at FIU’s Wolfsonian Museum.

The Wolfsonian-FIU and the Consulate General of Ireland present a special evening spotlighting a controversial stained-glass masterpiece of the early 20th century, Harry Clarke’s Geneva Window. Commissioned by the Irish Department of Industry in 1925, the window depicted literary scenes from 15 of Ireland’s finest writers, selected with the help of Clarke’s friend William Butler Yeats. As Clarke’s health deteriorated, the window ran into trouble for the authors selected, which included scandal-prone James Joyce and banned author Liam O’Flaherty. The evening includes a screening of a documentary on the controversial work and Clarke’s untimely death, and a discussion with Irish fashion designer Jennifer Rothwell on Clarke’s influence on her designs, as well as a tour of the window itself.

7-9pm, The Wolfsonian-FIU, Free with RSVP

Neighborhood: Miami Beach

Also on February 20th:

Friday, February 21st

Arms Around America

Award-winning performance artist Dan Froot started out compiling oral histories of families in South Florida, Southern California and Montana whose lives were shaped by guns in some way. Those histories became a podcast, and then a theater piece, Arms Around America. Staged as a live radio broadcast, complete with musical numbers and a three-piece band, the show narrates the experiences of six families with humor and compassion, aiming to open a space for dialogue around Americans’ relationship with guns. The show opened in LA in the fall to good reviews, and will travel to Montana after its Florida premier with Miami Light Project.

8pm, Lehman Theatre at MDC North Campus, $20-$35

Neighborhood: Between North Miami and Hialeah

Nearby Eats: this is a good excuse to try places with great reviews that always seem too far north, like Edan Bistro, EntreNos, and Barra Callao | Drinks: head back to Little River for Bar Kaiju or Magie

Saturday, February 22nd

De La Soul

The Arsht Center welcomes rap legends De La Soul for a one-night-only concert at Knight Concert Hall, with an opening set by globetrotting DJ Stretch Armstrong. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that De La revolutionized hip hop with its groundbreaking 1989 album 3 Feet High and Rising, or that we couldn’t hear their music for about twenty years thanks to copyright issues. With the untimely passing of “Trugoy the Dove,” the trio is now a duo, but they’re still cranking that playful, intricate rap with wide-ranging samples that keeps the people happy.

8pm, Knight Concert Hall at Arsht Center, $45-$125

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Also on February 22nd:

  • Cake master Duff Goldman, in town for the SOBE Food & Wine Fest, throws a comedy and dessert party at the Miami Beach Bandshell, at 9pm.

Sunday, February 23rd

Bass Dialogues: Rachel Feinstein and Jack Pierson

The Bass Museum presents its first artist talk of 2025, with internationally renowned multi-media artists Rachel Feinstein and Jack Pierson, in conversation with Bass Chief Curator James Voorhies. Feinstein, a Miami native, currently has a major career retrospective at The Bass, including Panorama of Miami, a new 30-foot mirrored mural of 1980’s Miami landmarks. Pierson, best known for his intimate photographs, spent some of his early years working in Miami and took some of his first photos here.

12pm-1pm, The Bass Museum, Free

Neighborhood: Miami Beach

Nearby Eats: Blue Ribbon Sushi, Sweet Liberty, Bar Luca | Drinks: Greystone Bar, Water Lion at the Sagamore

Also on February 23rd:

  • Physician and journalist Dr. Amitha Kalaichandran visits Books & Books to discuss her new book On Healing: Finding Wholeness Beyond the Limits of Medicine, at 11am.

  • Award-winning young Israeli piano sensation Ariel Lanyi plays Schubert and Bartok at the Aventura Arts & Cultural Center, at 5pm.

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 to get on your calendar now…

Thursday, February 27th

Seraphic Fire’s Enlightenment Festival: The Romantic

Seraphic Fire, our stunningly-good vocal ensemble, continues its “Music History 101” season with a showcase of vocal compositions from the Romantic period. Director James K. Bass will lead the Seraphic Fire vocalists in pieces by Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Brahms - icons of the Romantic movement - as well as work by lesser-known composers, including Clara Schumann, an influential pianist and composer of the period. (She also happened to be married to the aforementioned Schumann, with whom she had eight children.)

7:30pm, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, $45-$65

Neighborhood: Coconut Grove

Nearby Eats: Krüs Kitchen, Bellini, Carbone Vino | Drinks: Sipsip at Mayfair, bartaco

Friday, February 28th

Ailey II: The Next Generation of Dance

For over 50 years, Ailey II has operated as a springboard for some of America’s most talented young dancers and a showcase for emerging and boundary-pushing choreographers. These young artists are bringing their “off-the-charts energy” (The New Yorker) and signature Ailey technique to Miami for a one-night-only performance you don’t want to miss.

8pm, Knight Concert Hall at Arsht Center, $30-$75

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

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