by Jonel Juste for Artburst Miami. Also on The Miami Herald

Poetry is typically found in books, its words inked onto the page to stir emotions such as love and passion. However, in the case of “Poetry on the Plaza,” it sometimes appears on public walls, crafted from recycled materials to raise awareness about environmental issues.

Since July, MOCA Plaza in North Miami has been the host of the public walls adorned with trilingual poems made from recycled plastic. The installation remains on view at Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) North Miami through Sunday, Sept. 21.

The installation, Poetry on the Plaza, was created by artist and designer Nathan Justice Moyer, founder of the nonprofit Free Plastic. With support from O, Miami and MOCA North Miami, the initiative invited community members to collect discarded plastic, repurpose it into letters, and form poems in English, Haitian Creole, and Spanish.

“As an artist, I explore the wasted potential of discarded materials, transforming waste into both creation and solution,” says Moyer.

Moyer explains that the project is part of the broader Plastic Poetry program, launched in 2020, which merges cleanups, poetry workshops, and public art. The program has produced more than 30 installations across South Florida, each one written by members of the community where it is displayed.

“At each location, our mission is to educate the local community about the environmental impacts of plastic, to activate the community with a cleanup, to engage participants in a poetry-generative workshop, and to celebrate their work by selecting a poem written by a community member,” he says.

For the MOCA installation, three North Miami residents contributed poems: Angela Delgado, Jennifer Kramer, and Rebeca Lugo Carrillo.

One of the poems reads, “I feel like I could stretch out my arms and hug this city” in English; “Mwen santi mwen ka louvri bra mwen e anbrase vil sa a” in Haitian Creole; and “Siento que podría extender mis brazos y abrazar esta ciudad” in Spanish.

“The quick answer here is simply, inclusion,” says Moyer of the trilingual approach. “Through the presentation of the three poems in three of North Miami’s commonly spoken languages, I hope to demonstrate the idea that there is no linguistic hierarchy, that no language is superior to another.”

Kimari Jackson, curatorial assistant at MOCA, says the choice to display poetry on the museum’s exterior aligns with its mission to connect with the community.

“As an art museum, we tend to focus on the visual arts and I think it is important for MOCA to display poetry as it shows there are many forms of art, not just the visual,” says Jackson. “It allows MOCA to highlight these different forms, especially those that incorporate MOCA’s community.”

For the O, Miami, Poetry Festival the collaboration was a natural extension of its mission to bring poetry into public life.

“O, Miami has collaborated with Nate and Free Plastic to produce Plastic Poetry since 2020,” says Caroline Cabrera, artistic director of O, Miami. “Plastic Poetry is deeply rooted in place, both through the sustainability efforts of upcycling plastic waste and the poetic action of publishing resident work in public spaces.”

She added that seeing community poems elevated in a museum setting was particularly meaningful. “It’s exhilarating to see resident work elevated in this way,” says Cabrera. “Poetry can live anywhere. Over the years we’ve put poetry on buses, benches, parking tickets, fruit stickers, fence wraps—the list goes on. What feels most special about Poetry on the Plaza is seeing poetry adopted by a major art institution and validated as a fine art alongside the works displayed inside the museum.”

Workshops encouraged participants to write in the languages most natural to them, often leading to hybrid forms that reflected Miami’s cultural mix. “The results are often surprising and delightful—Spanglish, Creolish, Frenchlish poems that play with hybrid languages the way so many Miamians do in their day-to-day lives,” says Cabrera.

By turning plastic into poetry, the project not only gives voice to community expression but also confronts the urgent issue of waste. Nearly 50 pounds of discarded plastic were repurposed for the MOCA installation.

“Art allows us a space to question, to explore,” says Moyer. “Through a community art project like this, art is a catalyst. We engage viewers to reconsider their preconceptions about plastic and its environmental impact. We demonstrate that this material should not be blindly discarded after just one use.”

Cabrera echoes that perspective, noting that sustainability and poetry are deeply connected in the project. “Our approach to poetry is inherently tied to place and to a sense of responsibility for the stewardship of this place,” she says.

For MOCA, the project was also an opportunity to deepen ties with its community through workshops and cleanups, including one at North Miami Senior High. “Plastic Poetry and Free Plastic is all about community engagement, and the community is what makes the installation,” according to Jackson.

Since its inception, the Plastic Poetry program has expanded across South Florida, from Homestead to Boca Raton, and continues to grow. MOCA’s Poetry on the Plaza is its latest installation, with others planned for Everglades National Park and Westchester.

“Each year we add a few more installations throughout South Florida, and we aim to reach new communities with each one,” says Moyer.

Poetry on the Plaza will remain on view at MOCA North Miami through September 21, 2025.

Caption: One of the poems from the Poetry on the Plaza installation, written in English, Haitian Creole, and Spanish, is titled “Feel, Siento, Santi.” It is a ZipOde, a poetic form created by O, Miami that structures each line according to the digits of a U.S. ZIP code. (Photo by Daniel Bock)

 WHAT: Poetry on the Plaza

 WHEN: Through Sunday, Sept. 21.

 WHERE: Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), 770 NE 125 St., North Miami

 COST: Free

 INFORMATION: 305-893-6211 or mocanomi.org

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