He filled the 305 with poetry. Now, O, Miami’s executive director is stepping down

Of all the many ways the literary nonprofit O, Miami has brought poetry to the city’s residents, founder and executive director P. Scott Cunningham recalls one in particular: the resurrection of José Martí.

O, Miami bombards Miamians with poetry in April, be it with airplane banners, fake parking tickets or downtown billboards. In 2014, actor Ivan Lopez suggested a fun idea to bring a dead poet to life. He dressed as Martí, the Cuban poet and revolutionary. He recited Martí’s poems as he rode a horse down Calle Ocho, trailed by staff and volunteers handing out white roses.

Cunningham loved the idea and thought it would be funny. But The Last Ride of José Martí meant much more than that, he said. Cuban community members were touched to see and hear their homeland’s idol, and Cunningham recognized the project’s impact.

“One of the things I love about the festival is that I think an event is gonna go one way and then it goes a completely different way,” Cunningham said. “And it’s actually way better and way more meaningful than I ever realized.”

After leading the organization for 17 years, Cunningham is stepping down as executive director as of June 30. O, Miami announced Thursday that it will conduct a search to fill the role. The announcement came just a week away from the group’s annual O, Miami Poetry Festival, from April 1 to 30.

Cunningham will remain involved in the organization as a member of the Board of Directors.

”It’s been a joy to see O, Miami grow under Scott’s creative leadership into one of Miami’s most beloved institutions,” Tom Healy, the O, Miami Board Chair, said in a statement. “Scott has built a strong organization that is well-prepared to keep growing along with our great city. We’re excited for him and for O, Miami’s next chapter.”

While organizing community events has been an incredible creative outlet for him, Cunningham said he is ready to hand over the reins. Cunningham, a writer, plans on pursuing projects he had left on the backburner while running the nonprofit and festival. Though the decision is bittersweet, he said he’s excited that the nonprofit has a strong future. “I wanted this to be a thing that outlasted me,” he said.

“Over the last year and a half, I slowly started to realize that I had given it all that I had creatively,” he said. “It was time for me to step aside and let it be someone else’s creative engine and have them push it in a direction that I would have never been able to do. That’s a healthy thing for any organization.”

Cunningham grew up in Boca Raton, which he described as “45 minutes and a world away” from Miami. He visited Miami often as a child so when he moved here in 2005 to attend graduate school at Florida International University, he thought he knew what he was getting himself into. He was wrong.

Unlike other cities he had lived in, like Boston or San Francisco, Miami was hard to figure out. There had to be more than the tourist traps and Club Space. He learned more about Miami when he connected with the local arts community, and he fell madly in love with the city.

Cunningham didn’t plan on starting a nonprofit. Frankly, “I didn’t want to be lonely as a poet in Miami,” he said, chuckling.

“This place is so fascinating. I’ll never get to the bottom of it,” he said. “So how can I create a job for myself where every day I’m exploring Miami?”

In 2008, he began organizing a lecture series with interesting people talking about what they do. At the time, he was writing his senior thesis and renting a desk at a coworking space in Wynwood that no longer exists. These were the early days of Wynwood as an up-and-coming arts hub. He held the first series of lectures at the coworking space, dubbing it the University of Wynwood. (Despite the tongue-in-cheek name, several people thought it was a real university, Cunningham said.)

He secured funding from the Knight Foundation to organize a poetry festival to bring visiting poets to Miami. That’s when he changed the name to O, Miami, referencing how a poet may begin an ode to a beloved person or place. By 2022, O, Miami received a $2.5 million award from the Knight Foundation. The festival is known for its mission to make sure every person in Miami-Dade County encounters a poem during the month of April, or National Poetry Month.

Since the first festival in 2011, the organization’s efforts expanded to education, hosting poetry workshops and events at schools and community centers. Earlier this month, the group published its first photo book on Miami’s ventanitas featuring poems from residents of all ages. Last year, the group worked with Spanish art collective Boa Mistura to paint the water tanks overlooking Miami Beach Senior High. A line from a student’s poem, the first she ever wrote, stretches across the murals.

Cunningham said the biggest requirement for the executive director job is to love the city of Miami.

“That’s the heart of what we do,” he said. “I mean, poetry is honestly secondary to that.”

This story was produced with financial support from individuals and Berkowitz Contemporary Arts in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.