P. Scott Cunningham is the founder of O, Miami, a biennial poetry festival in Miami organized by the University of Wynwood and with support from the Miami-based Knight Foundation. The festival is happening this month.
WLRN: Tell us a little bit about yourself. The real P. Scott Cunningham.
Cunningham: I'm all about three things: Miami Heat basketball, Christina Frigo, and chihuahua-related Instagram feeds.
WLRN: If you could have a beer with any poet, dead or alive, who would it be?
Cunningham: Shakespeare. Besides the suspense of seeing whether the Earl of Oxford would show up instead, I really would like to ask him questions about Hamlet, the Sonnets etc. Or John Keats. Yes, I change my answer. John Keats.
WLRN: What is O, Miami?
Cunningham: A month-long poetry festival with the mission of reaching every single person in Miami-Dade County with a poem. Basically, it's an experiment in the delivery of literature to new audiences. How do we get poems to people who would never go to a poetry reading? In doing that, we try to empower local creative people to take ownership of the festival. The festival is a mix of my sensibilities and the Knight Foundation's mission to "make art general." For a longer philosophical discussion, visit knightarts.org/omiami.
WLRN: What's the funniest thing that happened last year? The most intense?
Cunningham: You mean, at the festival? Or in my life? I'm just going to assume you mean the former and say that the funniest thing was DaveLandsberger reading poems inside of a Ferrari with a bullhorn. And the most intense was RaulZurita reading poems about the Disappeared in Chile.
WLRN: This is your second event. What is different this year?
Cunningham: The main difference is that a much greater percentage of the festival is being produced by other people and organizations. Miami itself is really producing this thing. We're responsible mostly for the final weekend.
WLRN: You have a partnership with WLRN, a social media push to have people tell the world what describes our city with the hashtag #thatssomiami. Tell us some good ones and an original P. Scott Cunningham one.
Cunningham: Well, I would say just go read Tumblr. I read it everyday and it's hilarious and awesome. My contribution would be: "Hey person-I'm-interviewing, go do my journalism for me. #ThatsSoMiami."
WLRN: Sticking with social media, Megan Amram has a very popular Twitter feed and to a certain extent, her fame can be traced to her involvement with this project. What has Twitter and other social media done for poetry? What else can it do?
Cunningham: Twitter (to narrow down your question) has definitely given a bump to a few careers. D.A. Powellis a fabulous poet and a very generous & funny personality on Twitter. His following transcends the genre, which is good for all of us. Then there's people like @Largeheartedboywho covers a range of cultural topics. By including poetry on a fairly frequent basis, he puts it on the same level as music and film, thereby leveling the arts coverage playing field in a way that traditional media outlets refuse to do. For example, The New York Times Book Review still does not print an "end-of-the-year" top ten list for poetry. This is not a space concern. It's a message: your art form is NOT literature. In terms of Twitter-as-content, I think the compression of the form is perfectly tailored for poets, and years from now, I'm sure we'll realize that some masterpiece was being constructed right under our noses.
WLRN: Who is a famous Miami poet? What about one that's new and upcoming that everyone should read?
Cunningham: In English, not many. Donald Justice. In Spanish, there's a lot more. Lorenzo Garcia Vega. Ricardo Pau-Llosa. This town has been the temporary residence for a lot of great Latin American poets. Up and coming? He's only a part-time Miamian but Frank Baez is amazing.
WLRN: If you could suggest WLRN's readers only make it to two events in April, what would they be?
Cunningham: The Poetry is Dead Parade at noon on Sunday, April 28th in Lummus Park. It's going to be weird, in a good way. On Friday, April 26th we have a reading at The Freehand/Broken Shaker that crosses poetry with tattoo art. People can sign up to get a Miami-themed tattoo they'll totally regret when they move to L.A. The complete schedule is here.
WLRN: Tell us why you love Miami. And why we should love poetry.
Cunningham: I love Miami because it's not like any other city in the U.S. It's more diverse and less "curated." Every time I think I understand it, I discover some aspect that changes everything. I love poetry for the same reasons.
