Odes to Miami

Abstract

This paper investigates ›Zip Odes‹, a format developed for the O, Miami poetry festival, as an example of sociopoetic practices between the urban and digital space. Zip Odes are short poems written by residents that transform their zip code »into an occasion for place-based, lyrical celebration« (festival website). The Zip Ode’s composition principle is based on the number in the author’s zip code, and it is unlike traditional verse as words rather than syllables are counted. Each year, dozens of poems are displayed in the streets and performed in front of audiences. Further performances take place on the festival’s Instagram page, where written odes are animated in serial form or presented as video clips recited by the poets. After introducing the context of the O, Miami poetry festival, the paper will take a sociocultural perspective to discuss the Zip Ode as a popular adaptation of a classical lyrical genre. In the literary tradition, odes are song-like poems expressing strong feelings, particularly admiration, and addressed to sublime nature or an abstract entity. Here, they are directed at a place, a neighborhood, or a city. By performing a textual examination of exemplary Zip Odes, this paper will analyze the form and themes of the genre before discussing its various presentation formats. The paper sets the festival concept and, in particular, this innovative poetry format in relation to the notion of ›lyric address‹ and considers it as a practice of place-making.