This past weekend, I flew to South Florida to give a reading for the University of Wynwood. If you look into taking classes at University of Wynwood, you’ll be disappointed, as the faculty size is zero and so is the student body. It was founded by P. Scott Cunningham and named after a local art district. Miami might be a hotbed for fashion and upscale restaurants, but often it’s difficult to get writers and musicians that deep into South Florida, so P. Scott Cunningham created University of Wynwood, which hosts the poetry festival O, Miami, to try and bring increase the presence of the literary arts in Miami.
Friday night, I participated in a cancer fundraiser with the Miami Poetry Collective, which was founded by the MFA graduates of Florida International University. The Miami Poetry Collective has set up tables in public locations as The Poem Depot with a bunch of typewriters, and poets write poems on the spot. At the fundraiser, people were invited to donate as much as they wished and The Poem Depot cohort wrote poems on the subjects that the donors suggested. The experience was somewhat nerve-wracking. I haven’t used a typewriter in years and misspelled words, missed punctuation, and tried in the midst of conversations, raffle giveaways, and the DJ’s announcements to write poems about marriage, selective memory and a father’s love for his daughter. Nerve-wracking though it was, it was amazing too. It was great to write poems people requested and give it to them. I also got a temporary tattoo that said “F*ck Cancer” for the occasion.
Saturday night, Lester’s (a great coffee and wine bar in the Wynwood district) hosted the
reading, and I had the privilege of giving my first reading in front of a wall of mustaches. I gave a Q&A afterward. Normally during a Q&A people ask questions like: “What inspires you to write?” or “Why did you start writing?” I’m always happy to answer those questions, but one of the things I enjoyed about the crowd at Lester’s was that they asked very different questions. Many of them were about me as a person rather than about the poems. They asked about whether or not I was raised in Florida and wanted to know if I had brothers and sisters. One of the best parts for me is getting to talk to people afterward and getting to know a little bit about them, and I appreciated that they wanted to know a little about me. One of the people I wrote a poem for the previous evening at the fundraiser also attended the event at Lester’s, and I was pleased to hear that he liked the poem I wrote for him.
One of my other favorite things about being on the road is the chance to eat great food and the opportunity to hang out with old friends, and I got the opportunity to do both in Miami, thanks to the University of Wynwood and great hosting by my friends, The Bergkamps.
About Traci Brimhall
The reading was inspiring, and it was a pleasure to have you visit!