--dedicated to Vanessa Garcia and the Homegrown Crew Dirt floor Corner store tucked beneath an overpass My heart is a food desert: Its deep red sealed in jars like sour pickles or deviled eggs My heart is a food desert: Black fist that ferments laments dissents in what can never be said My heart is a food desert: Wasps of dread Wasps of dread Wasps of dread Wasps of dread My heart is a food desert: brothel of bones empty rooms (un)fed My heart is a food desert: Dreams of a fine man waiting in dark-green fields the color of cabbage and kale My heart is a food desert: Its beats—boarded-up Sundays its thumps—homeless hymns its drums—snuffed-out prayers *Note: The impetus for this poem came from a prompt assigned by Vanessa Garcia, Mentor for the Homegrown BIPOC Playwrighting Development Program. Playwrights were asked to take advantage of the senses—all of them—to enhance our feel for both character and place.
Lolita Stewart-White is a poet, playwright, and filmmaker who lives and works in Miami. She is a Pushcart nominee and the winner of the Paris American Readers Series. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Green Mountains Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, African American Review, Iowa Review, and Boston Review. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Palm Beach Poetry Festival, and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. Stewart-White is a part of City Theatre's BIPOC playwrighting development program. Her plays have been performed at the Adrienne Arsht Center and Mainstreet Players. Stewart-White's films have been exhibited at the Los Angeles Pan African Film and Arts Festival, Seattle Langston Hughes's Film Festival, and Miami's Museum of Contemporary Art (Moca).
9/6 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Felicia Zamora / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
9/6 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Felicia Zamora and local poet Lolita Stewart-White / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free
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What a fabulous kick-off to the SWWIM fall 2023 season with this moving and musically compelling poem by Lolita Stewart-White!