When a City
Finds Its
Voice.
A citywide poetry initiative inviting residents of all ages to write love poems to Miami, celebrating neighborhoods, heritage, culture, identity, memory, and lived experience.
BRING SONNETBOOM! TO YOUR CITY
What does a city sound like when it speaks from the heart?
In partnership with O, Miami, SWWIM, and The Miami Herald, Sonnet BOOM! invited people of every age and background to write love poems to Miami. More than 500 submissions poured in, capturing the city’s beauty, contradictions, neighborhoods, cultures, memories, and dreams. But Sonnet BOOM! was never just about poetry.
It was about helping a city see itself through new eyes.
Through workshops, mentorship, public voting, media amplification, civic celebration, and a culminating live event at the YoungArts Jewel Box, Sonnet BOOM! transformed personal expressions of place into a shared civic ritual. Selected poems became part of the physical fabric of the city = across billboards, store windows, barges, walls, public spaces, and media platforms throughout Miami.
Melody Santiago Cummings,
Co-Executive Director, O’Miami IMAGE
“I think it’s fantastic that Elevate Cities came to Miami and used poetry as a tool to uplift and elevate, because poetry can find ways to unite us. It allows us to experience the world through the heart and through the soul of someone else, and that kind of connection matters.”
GALLERY
Let’s Build
Something Beautiful
Whether you’re leading change, shaping policy, or simply loving your community out loud, there’s a place for you here.
Together, we can spark the joy and pride that make cities
— and the people in them — shine.
OUR MIAMI ACTIVATIONS
