Aesop | O, Miami Poetry Festival

A month in verse

Ever since the Academy of American Poets named April National Poetry Month in 1996, individuals and organizations around the country have taken creative measures to foster appreciation for this distinct literary form. O, Miami—a community-based, city-wide poetry festival—is a chief example, embodying the mission set out when National Poetry Month was established. 

The festival is much like an ode to the city of Miami—an opportunity for local poets to find a stage and a means to celebrate the city. The hope with each O, Miami Poetry Festival is for everyone in the Miami-Dade County to encounter poetry one way or another. As such, poems take many an unusual form—large-scale projections, fruit stickers, and parking tickets—and the programming is open to the public. 

As April comes to a close, we are particularly excited about events that see out the end of the festival such as: Room of One’s Own, where you can join a poet-in-residence during the creative writing process; Where the Land Is Free, a visual art and poetry showcase inspired by local grassroots community organizing; and Poetry in Paradise Renewed, a pop-up of performances in Virginia Key Beach Park ending in an interdisciplinary performance on the shoreline. 

‘Poetry must be as new as foam, and as old as the rock.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson