Bad Poems

Bad Poems

“Bad Poems” is an intimate portrait that provides a rare glimpse into the joy and defiance Miami’s community of Black artists and organizers found one spring evening. A former pool hall perched above the historic Overtown district plays backdrop to a retelling of Sam Solomon’s efforts in the 1930s to register Black voters in defiance of Klan violence that Langston Hughes captured in a fiery poem lost to many. One by one, established poets and poets for the moment alike, take turns at the mic to offer social commentary as they share their joyful aspirations and soul-gripping grief—all to a live soundtrack of the period and subsequent moments of resistance. “Bad Poems” was created by Corey Davis (he | they) and Alexa Caravia (she | her).