Coral Gables’ famed central walkway, Miracle Mile, is undergoing a makeover. This spring, the new design will feature wider sidewalks covered in a multi-hued granite resembling a cloud-dabbed South Florida sky. Curbs will be removed and replaced with low stone bollards and tree canopies. There will be garden-like seating areas…
When Dayme Arocena sings, her Santos emerge. Yemaya, Oshun, and Obatala, three saints who claimed her two years ago, take over. Sometimes, she’ll take her shoes off to feel closer to their energies. Her bare feet stepping against the wooden floor. She awakens, belting soulful rhythms. The 23 year-old Celia Cruz-Aretha…
On Friday night, the Miami International Film Festival premiered Dark Glasses, a film by a Cuban artist who is redefining the island’s cinema through esoteric visuals and an engrossing narrative. The future feels potent, accomplishing what contemporary cinema seems to have such a hard time at: cultivating authenticity. Jessica Rodriguez’s Pinar del…
Gorky Aguila and Lia Villares, members of Cuban rock band, Porno Para Ricardo, were detained for 24 hours upon returning to Cuba’s Jose Marti Airport. The activists were coming back from Miami, where they performed shows at Cuba 8 Museum and Performing Art Center and Market Gallery. “When they got there, they…
You might remember Super Fine! House of Art and Design from the inaugural fair during last year’s Miami Art Week. The show transformed a gutted office building in Little River across the street from the Made at the Citadel headquarters into an interactive art fair. It hosted local and international talent…
Hialeah sometimes gets a bad rap. It’s far, their street grid changes at its’ own volition, and there is always traffic. In the past year alone, the city has topped lists for being one of the worst places to date and stay fit. But this Saturday evening from 6 p.m…
When hiking through a forest, some people are wary of wildlife. Others look out for poisonous plants or unique trees. But artist Matthew Ronay searches for nature’s edible fungus: the mushroom. “It’s really a Zen practice— you’re not thinking about the past or future,” he says. “It’s about the pleasure…
Since the dawn of the revolution, Cuba’s state-sponsored cinema has been controversial and intellectually crafted. In the 1960s, Memories of Underdevelopment and De Cierta Manera marked a golden age of nuanced social critique within the confines of the revolution’s dismal sense of humor. But the Special Period wrought dire economic circumstances, forcing the…
Last Thursday night, street artist Daniel “Krave” Fila’s mural that lays across the parking lot at Budget Ace Hardware on Second Avenue and 17 Street, was vandalized. An indiscernable message, possibly reading “GRISLE, YALE, HEAL” was bombed across the sunbather’s torso in white bubble lettering. Tears dripped down her face onto the…
Marques Toliver was in New York City for one week before he realized he wasn’t leaving. The natural-born violinist left his hometown of Daytona Beach on a whim in 2007. He quickly began busking on Williamsburg’s trendy street corners, but it was mid-November and the Florida kid didn’t even have…
On December 25, 2014, Danilo Maldonado Machado, thin and atrevido, rode in the back seat of a blue Lada with a smile dangling beneath defiant eyes. As the driver headed down Havana’s Malecón near Avenida 23, police sirens wailed. Maldonado was headed to a performance piece based on George Orwell’s…
Saturday night, 19 chefs came together at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival’s “Croquetas and Champagne” event to reinterpret Miami’s favorite finger food: the croqueta. Hosted by superchef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and curated by resident Burger Beast Sef Gonzalez, this is a far cry from your primo’s birthday party. Instead of…
The croqueta has become synonymous with Miami. No other city in the United States relies on it as much. It is the younger sibling of the European croquette — a larger version of the fried paste treat with potato filling. Miami’s croqueta, with its Caribbean roots, has transformed the once-listless…
Jeff Quintana, co-founder of Miami’s Villain Theatre, woke up on a Central Park bench every morning for two weeks in the dead of New York City’s winter. It was 2009 and Quintana had just left Miami to pursue his love of comedy — a passion not readily supported in Miami. He…
This Thursday, Danilo Maldonado Machado, a Cuban visual and performance artist known as ‘El Sexto,’ will premiere “PORK”, a new exhibition at the Market Gallery on Alton Road in Miami Beach. He calls it a “raucous carnival for the mind, body and soul.” There will be new paintings, a surprise…
For Cuban musician and Fabrica del Arte Cubano (FAC) founder, X Alfonso, art exists in a multidisciplinary space. The Havana based business brings this sensory experience to Vedado’s early 20th century government electricity building every week; screening films and hosting visual artists all in the same venue. It’s a testament…
This year’s three MasterMind Award winners — chosen from a group of ten finalists — will be announced this Thursday, February 18, at Artopia, New Times’ annual soirée celebrating Miami culture. For tickets and more information, visit newtimesartopia.com. A night deep in the Southwest Florida farmlands means silence. During the day,…
A palace is typically extravagant, filled with too many pillows and too many luxury items. It’s the ultimate signifier of wealth and consumption. But for Japanese choreographer Kota Yamazaki, it’s a frenetic, meditative space where dark and light coexist. Inspired by utakai (poetry readings by Japanese aristocrats) and renga (collaboratively…
This year’s three MasterMind Award winners — chosen from a group of ten finalists — will be announced Thursday, February 18, at Artopia, New Times’ annual soirée celebrating Miami culture. For tickets and more information, visit newtimesartopia.com. Imagine an enchanted triangular portal. White lights synced to ethereal beats illuminate the cavernous walls. As…
“Cuango cago yo, la pinga mia toca el agua.” Translation: “When I shit, my dick touches the water.” This poetic musing is not a comment on a Pornhub video — it’s the title of a track by Sony Latino’s latest addition, Miami’s Bachata Trap king: DJ Happy Colors. Hector Mendoza,…
I’ll never forget when 69 Boyz’ “Tootsie Roll” came on at an elementary school dance in 1997. This wasn’t the first time I had heard the Miami bass hit — my PE coach had already used the tune to choreograph a line dance for the girls to perform at an…
New Times’ Mastermind Awards honors the city’s most inspiring creatives. We’ll be profiling those honorable mentions, and eventually the finalists, in the weeks to come. This year’s three Mastermind Award winners will be announced February 18 at Artopia, our annual soiree celebrating Miami culture. For tickets and more information, visit…
