Oscar Fuentes grew up riding in his father's construction truck to his job at the Sonesta Hotel on Key Biscayne, passing Christo and Jeanne-Claude's pink Surrounded Islands along the way. Now the poet shaped in part by those childhood trips is bringing his latest collection to Books & Books Coconut Grove on Thursday, Aug. 20, at 6:30 p.m.
The free reading celebrates Geography of Light, a collection rooted in Fuentes' family history, his parents' journey from Honduras and his father's Alzheimer's diagnosis. Fuentes, known around Miami as "The Biscayne Poet" for his signature hat, shades, mustache and portable typewriter, imagined many of the poems during solo drives to Tampa, where his parents live.
"I'd leave on Friday afternoon and drive west with the setting sun in my eyes," Fuentes told Miami New Times in a profile published Aug. 18. "It was reminding me that I need to be the light. Most of the poems were imagined alone in the car, knowing I'd have to soon remind my dad of who I was when I saw him."
Fuentes used voice-to-text to capture ideas while driving before developing the poems further during visits with his father.
Childhood trips across Biscayne Bay
Fuentes was born in New York City in 1975 to undocumented Honduran immigrants. His family moved to Miami in 1983.
As a child, Fuentes rode across the Rickenbacker Causeway with his father, who worked construction at the Sonesta Hotel on Key Biscayne. He remembers seeing Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Surrounded Islands, the 1983 installation that encircled 11 islands in Biscayne Bay with bright pink fabric.
Fuentes later studied creative writing at Miami-Dade College under poet Michael Hettich. He wrote his first poem while bartending on a glass-bottom boat.
How 'The Biscayne Poet' got his name
Fuentes' stage name began with a friend's introduction at an open mic night at Churchill's Pub: "Let's welcome Oscar Fuentes, The Biscayne Poet."
The name stuck.
He later built a following by setting up a typewriter at Wood Tavern in Wynwood, where passersby supplied three words and Fuentes turned them into poems on the spot.
The performances eventually expanded to private and corporate events. Fuentes told New Times that BlackRock once flew him in for a workshop and paid him $10,000 to produce 200 poems in two hours. He has also been hired to type personalized poems at weddings and other events.
Reading followed by open mic
Thursday's event at Books & Books, 3409 Main Highway, includes a reading and conversation with Fuentes followed by an open mic session where attendees can share their own work, according to the bookstore's event listing.
Admission is free, but attendees are asked to RSVP through Eventbrite.
The bookstore carries Geography of Light as well as Fuentes' earlier Biscayne Inferno and Other Stories. Fuentes has published 13 books, including Relics of the Heart and Poetry City.
Event details
An Evening with The Biscayne Poet: Thursday, Aug. 20, 6:30 p.m., Books & Books Coconut Grove, 3409 Main Highway. Admission is free with RSVP through Eventbrite.
