Drigo led a demo cooking class showcasing three nutritional dishes using Spanish Needle (a local bueneza) and other tropical fruits and vegetables. We promoted this first class using flyers and knocking door-to-door around the neighborhood, and we were happily surprised that neighbors showed up. May we learn from Mother Earth, and from one another. May we hear the plant kingdom, and all it has to teach us. May we be together in mind, heart and spirit. Our neighborhood, our community, the ancestors who brought us here today. We’ve come together to give thanks and blessings: ![]() Monica’s mom, Helen Citrin, wrote an opening prayer: It was kind and loving the long length of the class made everyone feel comfortable and at home. As an introduction, this class was exhilarating. We did our first class of the season at Earth ‘N’ Us with Drigo, a culinary artist living in Miami. We sense an urge in our community to express themselves and heal from traumas created by our current capitalist system. The more classes we did, the more we realized that, sometimes, we just need silence and space to sit with the plants and to allow people to share what they know. We decided to showcase one bueneza per workshop and bring extra plants to show or try them. We learned that the more we observe, the more abundance we find. James helped us greatly to identify plants, and is always supportive of us learning about the nature that grows through concrete cracks. ![]() We worked with James Duncan-Portuondo, a Miami botanist and friend who is currently writing a book on weeds. We led plant walks around Little Haiti and Earth ‘n’ Us, a local farm and oasis, identifying and photographing buenezas that are edible or have medicinal properties. In September 2019, after the heavy rains, we started seeds and seedlings that we later planted with the help of Semillas COOP, a farm cooperative, and other people who showed interest in learning. There is a growing movement of folks around the world transforming the Spanish word for “weed,” maleza, into bueneza-good, not bad. “Buenezas - Edible Plant Guide of Little Haiti” is a project that consists of a series of workshops, panels and activities addressing the topic of naturally growing local weeds and their ancestrally known, but unfortunately forgotten benefits. Other inventive winners include Guillermo Leon Gomez, who got $6,000 for Transitory Moments, a performance piece with a male dancer, a female string trio and a passing train Pepe Mar, winner of $5,000 to help create Versus, a two-month installation in the form of a gay bar and Kevin Arrow, who got $5,000 for Obsolete Media Miami, in which Arrow turns his eye for old-fashioned photos, film and imagery into an archive for artists, designers and filmmakers.Co-written by Gabriela Serra, Monica Uszerowicz, and Nicole Salcedo. Some of the grant winners are well-known in Miami’s art scene, such as Frances Twombly and Leyden Rodriguez, who got $10,000 for their artist-run exhibition space Dimensions Variable Adler Guerrier, who received $5,000 to help support a film considering images of Watts, West Coconut Grove and Liberty City and Monica Lopez de Victoria of the TM Sisters, who got $5,000 for a film and “water-based performance of Miami Beach water ballerinas, Weeki Wachee mermaids and bathing beauties.” Other grant recipients, such as Marie Vickles who got $10,000 for inter-generational arts classes in Little Haiti, are less well-known. Knight Foundation and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs supplemented the program. It’s the second grant Cannonball, which runs artist residencies, forums and an innovative arts school, has received from the Warhol Foundation. The Wavemaker program was launched last fall with a $50,000 grant to Cannonball from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. ![]() “Through their tireless work, they contribute to the intellectual, critical and creative depth of Miami’s arts community." “Our inaugural year’s winners represent an impressive breadth of ideas and artistic practices,” said Cannonball executive director Chris Cook. The 15 recipients, chosen from 97 applicants, got awards of up to $10,000 each, for an intriguing-sounding list of projects ranging from free art workshops in Little Haiti to a performance in the form of a gay bar. Monica Lopez de Victoria, winner of a Wavemaker Grant from Cannonball Miami, will create a film and water-based performance such as the one shown in her ‘Galactic Sirens.’Ī traditionally unlucky day was lucky for 15 Miami artists, as Cannonball Miami awarded the first round of its Wavemaker grants in a crowded ceremony and party at its downtown space on Friday the 13th.
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