O, Miami Poetry Month Celebration Ends With Magazine Release

MIAMI, FL — For the past 10 years, O, Miami, a nonprofit organization that focuses on Miami's poets and writers, has released Jai-Alai Magazine, a literary journal.

Friday night, as the organization wraps up a slate of National Poetry Month events held throughout April, O, Miami celebrates “the death of Jai-Alai Magazine” with the virtual release of its final issue.

The journal “debuted in 2011 with issue (No.) 10 and has been counting down to its own extinction ever since,” according to its website.

Issue No. 1 will be released Friday at 7:30 p.m., “marking the end of the magazine’s run,” O, Miami said.

The virtual event will feature contributors to this issue reading poems they wrote that were inspired by poetry from Miami elementary school students from Poinciana Park, Orchard Villa, Emerson, and Morningside elementary schools.

Register for the online event here.

April’s National Poetry Month events featured a mix of public poetry projects and virtual programming, as the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing.

“We’re doing a lot of poetry in public places projects. We really leaned into that this year because we could that more safely than we could do in-person events,” Scott Cunningham, O, Miami founder, said. “The couple of in-person activations we did were outdoors and distanced. But for the most part, our gatherings were online.”

At the heart of its programming — whether in person or virtual — is a celebration of the city’s writers and culture.

“We’re a Miami organization first and poetry is the means through which we celebrate Miami,” Cunningham said, adding, “Miami is a big city. We pay a lot of attention to the geographic diversity within Miami. We make sure the things we do are not too concentrated in one neighborhood or area.”

When not running its annual citywide poetry festival, O, Miami also operates “a robust and growing education program,” Cunningham said. “I would say that is the heart of what we’re doing the other 11 months of the year.”

Through this program, they bring poetry into Miami’s elementary, middle and high schools.

“We really love this program and it’s something that came to us through the festival when a poet and teacher we really love proposed it,” he said. “One thing led to another and now it’s such a big part of what we do. We love bringing poetry to these kids.”

Learn more about O, Miami here.