The history of the beloved mango stretches back more than 200 years in South Florida. Over time, it has become a sweet, sticky symbol of summertime in the region.
Last year, Miami-based filmmaker and artist Jayme Kaye Gershen debuted the "Mango Movie", a film that explores the fruit’s cultural significance and deep roots in South Florida’s diverse communities.
Building on that project, her latest exhibit, “When Mangos Last in My Backyard Bloom’d”, is an immersive, multi-sensory experience that delves into the emotional ties between mango season, climate change, and community life.
Her curiosity with the mango’s connection to Miami began 10 years ago. She was a cat sitter in Miami and worked at a house that had a huge mango tree. When mangos were in season, more than 30 would fall at a time.
She would throw them in her backpack and deliver them to friends and neighbors. Unfortunately, she started to develop an allergy to the summer fruit.
“ What I found out later was I have an allergy to the sap, which is part of the poison ivy family,” Gershen said. “But I didn't know that at the time, so I just started getting these hives from all the mangos, so I backed off mangos.”
Since she couldn’t eat mangos anymore, she began observing people’s habits around them. She noticed that with so many cultures in South Florida, everyone has their own way of eating them that they believe is the right way or the best way.
READ MORE: Mangos, mangosteen and beyond: The hidden rare fruits growing in South Florida's backyards
When filming the movie, Gershen and her team went to Miami’s Legion Park with a handmade sign that said, “ Do you want to eat a mango on camera?” People lined up for hours just for the opportunity to talk and eat.
“ One guy waited three hours to be in the film,” Jayme said. “He's never come see the film, he doesn't respond to any of my messages, but he sat around all afternoon to tell us about his relationship to mangos.”
The film is only 13 minutes long. But Gershen and her team had so much unused footage from 22 interviews that she wanted to delve deeper into them and expand the film. That's how the idea of an immersive art exhibit came up.
It's a recipient of the 2024 Knight New Work, a grant program assisting projects using new technologies to create sensory experiences that reflect on a city's evolving environment.
The exhibit will have multiple screens where visitors can watch and listen to the extended interviews while they eat mangos, which they can pick from a mango sculpture in the building.
It combines multimedia with film and an immersive audio experience involving the sounds of mangos. There will also be sculptures in the space, including a giant cube with mango seeds.
“ We are collecting mango seeds after you've eaten them to add to the sculpture,” Gershen said. “So after you've eaten your mango, there's a mango wishing well and you can make a wish and leave your seed and it'll be part of this mosaic of the city at the end, all through mango seeds.
Gershen says nothing represents Miami better than the mango. A fruit that firmly holds the city's multiple identities, even though it is not originally from the region. It was brought here more than 200 years ago, first by pirates, and eventually, various scientists worked to plant and grow them here.
She also finds the fruit to be incredibly welcoming, since everyone has to figure out their own way to eat it, and there isn’t a wrong way to do it.
“ We have one interview with a young woman … her family's from Wisconsin and Argentina, and she had never eaten a mango all her life growing up in Miami,” Gershen said. “She has this really beautiful interview because she talks about how she found her own way [to eat the mango]. Her family tried to help her and give her tips, but she had to find her own way.”
IF YOU GO
What: When Mangos Last in My Backyard Bloom’d
When: June 14 through August 9
Where: Green Space Miami - 7200 Biscayne Blvd Miami, FL 33138
Information: More details here
