The term flotsam and jetsam usually refers to useless, discarded debris. But soon, it’ll also be the name of the Guinness World Record’s largest 3D printed structure. Printed using biodegradable bamboo, the 1,781 square foot structure will serve as a public plaza at the entrance to this year’s Design Miami…
Ibeyi, the downtempo soul duo comprised of French-Cuban twins Lisa-Kaïndé and Naomi Diaz, have been everywhere in the last month. Five days ago, they opened Chanel’s controversial fashion show in Habana, singing “River,” their hypnotic ode to Oshun. Less than a month ago, they were sprinkled throughout Beyoncé’s visual epic, Lemonade, amongst…
In the past year, actor Hector Medina has starred in two of Cuba’s biggest international co-productions. He played Yunisleidi, the transgender love interest in the controversial El Rey de la Habana. And now, he stars as Jesus in Viva, which opens in Miami theaters tomorrow. In Viva, Medina plays a young hairdresser…
The low-rise warehouse district on East 45th Street in Hialeah is filled with noisy clutter from auto mechanics’ shops and cafeterias during the day. But on a recent Saturday night, the humid air was glued to the concrete. It was quiet. At 11th Avenue, the faint vibrations of hip-hop bass…
Diamond Minds Transformational Leadership Academy, a private elementary and middle school, will host its inaugural Art in the Gardens community art event tomorrow. The outdoor gathering will feature works of local artists including Marcus Blake and Ronald Sanchez. Students at the school worked alongside the painters to create murals throughout…
Miami City Commissioners on Thursday afternoon came within a hair of firing City Manager Daniel Alfonso. The issue? Alfonso’s ham-handed removal of Little Haiti Cultural Complex manager, Sandy Dorsainvil. “This should be a come-to Jesus moment for you,” Commissioner Ken Russell said as he headed off Alfonso’s removal. Just minutes before,…
This weekend, alumni from the United States Artist (USA) fellowship program will descend upon Miami. The nonprofit organization is based in Chicago and its mission is to support working creatives by offering grants of up to $50,000. Each year, the philanthropic group hosts an Artists Assembly that brings together the…
Tim Chapman searches for crabs from a 1981 Boston Whaler he docks outside the home he built himself on Big Torch Key, where he’s been living since he retired from the Miami Herald in 2012. But during a 40-year career as a photojournalist, he pursued stories: The Jonestown massacre, Cocaine…
Last Friday evening as the sun was setting, 21 Cuban refugees carried their handmade boat to freedom on Marquesa Key. Silvio Hernandez, a 29-year-old from Mariel, documented their arrival using his Galaxy S3 cellphone camera. His cousin, Raydel Moreno uploaded it to YouTube Monday afternoon. Since then, the video has garnered over…
Miami is no stranger to human rights violations. Undocumented workers who have lived here for over twenty years are being deported, our governor just defunded Planned Parenthood, and locals are being displaced due to rapid overdevelopment. There is a lot of work to be done in Dade. So it’s good…
One of the driving goals behind Fidel Castro’s 1959 Cuban revolution was the alfabetización (literacy) campaign. The country believed that reading and writing radically empowers the individual, allowing them to cultivate thought. Today, Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera is taking that movement a step further. Bruguera is calling for civic…
I grew up going to art walk in the mid 2000s when Gallery Diet and David Castillo Gallery had just opened in Wynwood. Elite art aficionados and kids looking for free wine lurked inside while the local community remained outside. It was a quiet gentrification at first. Since then, neither the…
When author Edwidge Danticat was two years old, her father, André, left Duvalier’s Haiti and moved to New York City. Danticat remained in Bel Air with her uncle Joseph. Ten years later, she joined her father in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Danticat eventually became a writer and moved to Miami’s Little Haiti…
Louis Salgar was murdered two years ago by a stranger in his own home. He was beloved throughout Miami as a punk musician, bartender, brother, and son. Unbeknownst to most, Salgar was also a photographer. This week, his lesser-known craft will be exhibited at Miami Dade College’s 24th Annual Arts…
On the eve of Easter, Miami was blessed with the most beautiful, sweaty, and queer show the city has possibly ever seen. As the clock struck midnight on Saturday, calling an end to Semana Santa’s pious restraint, restorative vibes from Gooddroid, Poorgrrrl, Junglepussy and Le1f rained down upon Bardot’s intimate…
This weekend, protest organization Occupy Miami (a branch of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York) will host the inaugural Radical Film Festival. The two-day cinematic celebration of resistance aims to inform and inspire. Screening will be six topical films selected by local organizations, including Black Lives Matter Miami, Dream…
Street artist Joaquin Lamar Hailey, better known as Chor Boogie, has another personality: Love Man. The idea came to the San Diego-born artist two years ago while on a spiritual, medicinal journey in Gabon, Africa. He had been “back on the lesson,” he says, doing drugs and living a toxic…
When DJ Jubilee visits her hometown (Miami) there are a few spots she needs to hit up. She’ll go to “that weird Biscayne beach”, to her “homie” Otto von Schirach’s sets, but most importantly, to Miami’s best hip-hop party, Peachfuzz. Peachfuzz, known around these parts as your girl’s favorite party,…
One of Miami’s longest running open mic nights has found a new home in Made at the Citadel. Some may remember the event as Stone Groove, which ran every Tuesday night for six years in downtown’s now defunct Vagabond. Since then, the event, hosted by local artist Marcus Blake, has…
Miami is ruled by color. Coral-stained hibiscus flowers sprinkle the city’s pavement. Fuchsia sunsets fade over turquoise-hued homes. It’s like a rainbow melted across South Florida. But when Michele Oka Doner emerges from her sister’s Miami Beach glass-paneled home in a white silk tunic, her dove-gray hair pulled back into…
Celia Cruz doesn’t need an introduction. The singer’s energy is synonymous with Miami: loud and sin vergüenza. Cubanitos in the ’70s grew up going to “El Open House,” Cuban dance parties held at the Jai-Alai where Cruz occasionally performed. Her music can still be heard at weddings, quinces, the club…
More than 200 Cuban protestors were arrested over the weekend as the island prepared for President Obama’s historic visit, which started yesterday. Dissidents of the human rights movement, #TodosMarchamos, including the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), and Unión Patriótica de Cuba (Cuban Patriotic Union, UNPACU), gathered at calle 26 and…
