"We're shoulder-to-shoulder codirectors," Cummings says. "We've been working together for many, many years and in many different forms."
After several combined decades of involvement in O, Miami, Cummings and Cabrera were unanimously voted in as the new heads of the poetry-focused nonprofit, taking over from founder P. Scott Cunningham, who stepped down from the leadership role earlier this year. Since June 1, Cummings and Cabrera have acted as the organization's executive and artistic directors, respectively.
"We're stepping into new roles but bringing with us all that institutional knowledge and experience," Cabrera says. "We've always worked collaboratively with each other. So, doing this together as codirectors is a very natural fit for us."
Their appointments to O, Miami leadership role meant splitting a position typically occupied by one person. However, after years of learning the organization's ins and outs, the women felt confident this was the right decision.
"Both of us just really felt — knowing what goes into the work we do — that it was a job best tackled by both," Cummings adds. "We proposed this dual leadership model. Neither of us applied separately because we know that this is the model that will work for this organization."
Though O, Miami is best known for its poetry festival, the nonprofit offers year-round programming. It's largely dedicated to ensuring that as many Miamians are exposed to poetry as possible, whether by bringing it straight to elementary school students in their classrooms through its Sunroom program or by hosting wider-reaching workshops for people of all ages.
O, Miami is a rarity among literary organizations in that it targets those who wouldn't typically enjoy spending their Friday nights at poetry readings. That means they have to get creative with their messaging.
"[ Your poem here ]" billboard project in downtown Miami for the 2023 O, Miami Poetry Festival
Courtesy of O, Miami and photograph by Lily Mora.
"Through this project, we maintain this belief system that everyone is a poet, and every occasion is a perfect occasion for poetry," Cummings says. "It's not about status, academics, or 'What's a good poem?' The reason this has become so popular is because we've really established that everybody and everything can be a poem."
Since taking on their new roles, Cabrera and Cummings have focused on identifying O, Miami's strengths and weaknesses, as well as making plans for future adjustments.
"We've been taking the time these past few weeks to recognize what we've accomplished as an organization and how we can take our strengths to the next level," Cummings explains. "We want to have an artistic direction and a strategic direction that really is in sync with the mission of the organization. So, even though we've been here and we speak the language, it's really us looking deeply at what works, what doesn't work — looking under the hood of our own organization. We applied to develop a new direction and not just maintain the status quo."
The pair is also ramping up preparations for the fast-approaching O, Miami Poetry Festival, which returns April 2025. Cummings says the request for proposals, the bread and butter for a festival largely built around an open submission process, is "right around the corner."
In the meantime, Cummings and Cabrera are focusing on O, Miami's other two pillars: civic publishing and education initiatives.
"We really use the term 'education' very widely," Cabrera says. "Anytime that someone reads or writes a poem who wouldn't have done so, that's education. Anytime we put a poem in a public space, and people encounter it, then have a moment of delight and are maybe invited to think of their own response, that's a moment of education."
Moving forward, the organization's new leaders are ready to advance the mission that's always been at its center — the idea that poetry belongs to everyone fortunate enough to experience it.
"If you've got an opinion about where you live, if you feel strongly about who you live with, about your community, then you have all the skills that you have to write a poem," Cummings says. "If you feel something about your environment or yourself, that's all you need."
