After some intense weeks of judging, Abe’s Penny chose the best O, Miami collaboration: a poem by Yaddyra Peralta submitted in response to photographs by Lee Materazzi. Peralta wrote and submitted the poem on location at New World School of the Arts’ Artseen gallery where Materazzi’s images were on exhibit as part of Abe’s Penny Live.
Abe’s Penny Live, Abe’s Penny’s first live collaboration, featured four sets of four photographs by Materazzi, Francie Bishop Good, Samantha Salzinger, and Robby Campbell. Writers were invited to visit Artseen and submit poems inspired by each series of photographs. Among a number of factors, submissions were judged on how well the writing spoke to the images that inspired it.
O, Miami, a month long poetry festival fully-funded by Knight Foundation, aimed to bring a poem to every resident of Miami-Dade County in April. Of the many events that took place in April, Abe’s Penny Live was one of the few that combined poetry with other artistic mediums.
Cynthia Cruz, Nicole Doran, Patti Her, Leonardo Valencia and sleeper, Sculpture alums from the New World School of the Arts were asked to interpret the idea of a “writing space,” and fabricated utopian yet functional work stations for writers visiting the gallery. Visitors made use of the space, which contained paper, pens, pencils, typewriters and even a hidden bottle of whiskey, to compose their submissions.
Abe’s Penny is an art and literature publication. Each monthly series features an image and text collaboration broken into four parts and printed on postcards. Subscribers receive one postcard every week; each month a new series begins. Abe’s Penny launched in March 2009. For more information about Abe’s Penny, visit www.abespenny.com.
