Humans have more in common with animals than many would like to admit — even in how we move. A new three-day art activation in Miami highlights the connections between human migration and animal displacement through an array of murals.
“Kindred Spirits,” a Soul Basel public-art activation, draws parallels between wildlife habitat loss and the displacement of Black communities, such as the I-95 expansion in the 1960s that uprooted 12,000 Black residents.
“A lot of the people who are educated, more upwardly mobile and successful ended up leaving the community,” said Miami native artist Nate Dee, an FIU alum who is an influential artist in South Florida’s art scene.
Featuring roughly 8-by-8-foot outdoor murals — paintings, photography, mixed media, plants and textiles — and a sculpture garden installed along the 9th Street Pedestrian Mall in Historic Overtown, the activation seeks to elicit larger questions about how the community can “adapt” after losing so much of its history to crushing politics and public policy.
“And how do we take what we have, who’s here, and kind of foster it and grow it so that the community isn’t completely lost?” Dee added.
To activate the outdoor space, curator Bart Mervil invited eight renowned artists to display their work. The project is a partnership between Mervil’s nonprofit MUSE 305 and Historic Overtown’s Soul Basel. Artists include Edouard Duval Carrie, Oscar Martinez, Inna Malostovker, Tawana Dixon, Rico Melvin, Jose Wesly and Nica Sweets.
Dee says the exhibition urges coexistence as redevelopments impact people and endangered animals. The exhibition, he adds, centers on both the craft of the murals and the theme of environmental protection.
For Dee, his art stems from the leafwing butterfly, which is federally listed as endangered. Its historic pine rockland habitat in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties is fragmented, and the butterfly survives mainly in Everglades National Park. Dee said, much like human migration, animal displacement occurs for several historical reasons working in tandem.
“And that one [leafwing butterfly] specifically is endangered because of habitat loss and because of climate, because of development, and also because of invasive species,” Dee said. “Which all could be connected.”
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IF YOU GO
What: Kindred Spirits
When: December 4th through December 6th
Where: Ninth Street Pedestrian Mall in Overtown: NW 9th Street, Miami, FL 33136
More details here
JOHN PACENTI is a correspondent of the Key Biscayne Independent. John has worked for The Associated Press, the Palm Beach Post, Daily Business Review, and WPTV-TV.