{"id":101399,"date":"2025-12-31T17:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T17:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/101399\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T17:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T17:54:07","slug":"the-gramps-yearbook-immortalizes-the-closing-wynwood-bar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/101399\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gramps Yearbook Immortalizes the Closing Wynwood Bar"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIn The Gramps Yearbook, handwritten thoughts turn each image into an impactful piece of lived archive.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Photo by Lex Barberio<\/p>\n

On any given night at Gramps, you could walk in alone and still end up knowing half the room. That was the magic of this misfit Wynwood bar: karaoke bleeding into drag shows<\/a>, a death metal set overlapping with a comedy show<\/a>, regulars stacked three-deep at the bar swapping stories, sweat dripping on the dancefloor. With the beloved venue days away from closing<\/a>, photographer and creative director Lex Barberio<\/a> is racing against the clock to preserve the stories of the people who made it what it was.<\/p>\n

Their project,\u00a0The Gramps Yearbook, is exactly what it sounds like, and a much-needed shift in perspective on what, for many, feels like another tragic loss for Miami\u2019s underground. During this final stretch, Barberio is photographing the regulars who filled its hand-painted walls, pairing each flash-lit portrait with a handwritten memory of what Gramps meant to them. The result is part punk archive, part family album, and part cultural record created in real time.<\/p>\n

\u201cGramps was one of those pillars in the community from the very start,\u201d Barberio says. \u201cIt was one of the places you could go by yourself on any night and know 20 or 30 people in the crowd. Everybody was just hanging out in such proximity.\u201d<\/p>\n

That kind of closeness, they argue, is increasingly rare in Miami, a city with a \u201cdisinterest in preserving cultural history<\/a>,\u201d where beloved spaces<\/a> are often \u201cturned over for money at any moment.\u201d Gramps\u2019 closure pushed what started as a loose idea into something bigger and more focused. \u201cI didn\u2019t initially plan to do an entire yearbook,\u201d they say. \u201cI thought I\u2019d come out for a day, shoot a couple of portraits. Then I really thought about it. Gramps draws so many types of people. Karaoke, drag, a fucking death metal band. I realized I needed to be there every day and photograph as many people as I possibly could.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMiami, make your New Year\u2019s Resolution Count!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWe\u2019re $14,500 away from reaching our $30,000 year-end fundraising goal. Your support could be what pushes us over the top. If our work has kept you informed, helped you understand a complex issue, or better connected you to your community, please consider making a contribution today.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

So far, they\u2019re more than 40 portraits deep, aiming to capture close to 200 faces by closing day on January 4<\/a>. Each subject is photographed in their favorite spot inside the venue, then handed an index card to write their name, Instagram handle, and whatever they\u2019d typically sign in a yearbook \u2014 a memory, a doodle, a sentence that still stings or fills their heart with joy. Barberio later scans and collages those handwritten notes directly onto the images, treating text and photo as interconnected pieces of a puzzle.<\/p>\n

\u201cA photo is just a photo until you add that human touch,\u201d they explain. \u201cThe words change everything.\u201d Paired with the portraits, the handwritten thoughts turn each image into an impactful piece of lived archive. The process is painstaking, since every portrait is shot in different lighting, different corners of Gramps, different moods. There\u2019s no batch editing here. \u201cEvery single photo has to be individually treated,\u201d Barberio says. \u201cIt\u2019s been an exercise in craft.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the work goes deeper than technique. For Barberio, the yearbook is inextricable from their own return to Miami after a decade away. They grew up here, left around 2016 to pursue a career in advertising in New York, then came back in 2024 to a city that felt almost unrecognizable. \u201cIt was jarring,\u201d they say. \u201cI felt the loss of what we once had almost immediately when I got back.\u201d<\/p>\n

That push and pull between loss and reconnection shapes the project from the inside out. \u201cArt is self-exploration exposed,\u201d Barberio says. \u201cYou\u2019re going through some shit, and then you make some shit about it. Those things are connected.\u201d Where their earlier work centered on identity and queerness, this chapter is about place and where they fit within it. \u201cMy self-exploration now isn\u2019t as much \u2018Who am I?\u2019\u201d they say. \u201cIt\u2019s more, \u2018Where do I fit into this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Crucially, The Gramps Yearbook is not meant to be a eulogy. Barberio is adamant that it\u2019s a celebration. \u201cThis project is not a sad occasion,\u201d they say. \u201cIt\u2019s a happy occasion. It\u2019s about highlighting the best parts of these communities, the power of them, because that\u2019s how you invite more of that into our spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project came together quickly, with support from Subtropic Film Festival, which helped connect Barberio with Gramps\u2019 team and clear the path for them to document the venue\u2019s final days. \u201cOnce places like this are gone, their stories tend to disappear with them,\u201d say Subtropic cofounders Jos\u00e9 Zaragoza and Noelia Solange. \u201cLex\u2019s photography feels like a necessary documentation of a Miami that\u2019s changing before our eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the portraits are done, Barberio will produce a physical yearbook, followed by a launch and signing party. But Gramps is only the beginning. The Yearbook reflects a larger mission they\u2019re actively pursuing: documenting Miami\u2019s niche communities before they\u2019re flattened, forgotten, or branded into something unrecognizable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to paint a real picture of Miami through my work, from underground cinema clubs to chefs to people in the Everglades,\u201d they say. \u201cIf there\u2019s a community worth documenting, I want to know about it.\u201d Consider this the open invitation: Barberio encourages anyone who feels their corner of the city deserves to be seen to reach out. And for those who want to be part of The Gramps Yearbook itself, the instructions are simple: DM Barberio to set up a time, or show up at Gramps and look for them as they shoot in the coming days, before the gates close for good.<\/p>\n

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