Language. Migration. Coconut trees. Family.
These are just a few of the topics Miami native Tati Perez has explored in penning more than 90 ZipOdes.
It’s a format created by WLRN and O’ Miami that turns the least lyrical designation of one’s home — a ZIP code — into an occasion for poetry.
Perez has been featured as a select poet at Vizcaya, and one of her poems appears in Literally Everyone’s Invited: An Ode to South Florida, which celebrated the 10th anniversary of the ZipOde last year.
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Perez took the format as an opportunity to write about all the ZIP codes she’s lived in throughout her life in Miami.
“ I was actually on a walk one day and I saw a street sign that had a poem on it. It felt like a very deliberate call out to me in that moment. So, it made me wanna look up more…that’s how I found out about, O’Miami,” she said. “I figured, I’ve lived in a lot of different neighborhoods by this point….I just really wanted to see more of what they were about.”
In one of her most recent ZipOde poems, Perez focuses on her experience with public transit. She moved to North Miami last year and has used the local bus system to get around.
The bus takes
me on a
World
Tour every day. Spanish, Creole, Russian
Reverberate off each other and create one resonant sound.Tati Perez, 33169
When her headphones die, she doesn’t panic. She actually enjoys a decent amount of background noise to get out of her own head. Being bilingual (English and Spanish), Perez enjoys listening to the diverse mix of languages and accents coming together.
“ As I take the 75 bus east, you just generally notice like the tapestry of things are changing, the ebb and flow of different languages coming and going,” Perez said. “It’s [like when]things are harmonizing just perfectly in a song and everything’s okay just for a little bit.”
Perez sees her experience on public transit as a reminder that parts of the social contracts are still intact.
“Bus drivers can be friendly, people can be cool. It’s not all doom and gloom here.”
Poetry month runs through the end of April. Anyone can submit a Zip Ode poem online via WLRN. The ZipOdes finale community reading will take place at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens on Wednesday, April 29, at 6 p.m. Early bird admission is $10, while regular admission $15.
