Plastic Poetry 005.1 & 005.2
Ferguson Senior High School
On July 29, 2022, Free Plastic and O, Miami installed their fifth in a series of public art works entitled Plastic Poetry. Plastic Poetry is a series of community activations that blends recycling plastics, plastic pollution, beach cleanups, public art, and poetry. This installation consisted of two poems by two Ferguson students with a combined total of 6.57 pounds of recycled plastic.
The text for Plastic Poetry 005.1 was written by Angelique Fuentes, a student from John A. Ferguson Senior High School in Evelyn Ulloa-Sanchez’s class as part of an open call for work for “Portrait at 34,” a project from Najja Moon commissioned by O, Miami. The five-inch letters are rendered in 2.65 lbs of recycled post-consumer plastic and plastic pollution harvested from various beach cleanups held throughout Miami-Dade County in 2021 and 2022.
The text for Plastic Poetry 005.2 was written by Luisa Ramos, a student from John A. Ferguson Senior High School in Evelyn Ulloa-Sanchez’s class as part of an open call for work for “Portrait at 34,” a project from Najja Moon commissioned by O, Miami. The five-inch letters are rendered in 3.92 lbs of recycled post-consumer plastic and plastic pollution harvested from various beach cleanups held throughout Miami-Dade County in 2021 and 2022.
Ferguson Senior High School’s Plastic Poetry Statistics
Portrait at 34 Event: Spring 2022
Participants: 41
Plastic Recycled: 6.57 lbs
Portrait
BY ANGELIQUE FUENTES
The woman who raised me,
called me, Mi Modelito,
alta con pelo rizado.
Gone in a blink of an eye—
she used to put me to sleep,
but once gone,
sleep never felt the same.
I am light and discreet
like a butterfly
through a field of tulips.
But I am grieving.
I am empty.
I am learning to radiate
again, like the sun
on a bright summer day.
Chubby cheeks on my face,
like those of a fluffy brown bunny.
There is the clumsiness
that leads me to silly scars.
The constant insecurities
that control my mind,
like autopilot on a plane.
How my spirit longs
to ride a bike, to skate again.
Childhood isn’t as innocent
as people claim it to be.
Thank you, emotions. Thank you, growth.
Portrait at 8
BY LUISA RAMOS
A meaningful person
got close to me.
She felt my face,
soft as silk, she said.
My second mom,
but not anymore.
Listening to the crickets
as I fell asleep, she whispered the sad news
and then, the
tears ran down my face.
There is a light wind
blowing the leaves
away from the trees.
I am growing. I am improving.
I am caring, passionate
like a bee working its
way in the sunflowers.
Footsteps of dark moles
around my body,
the stars of a pitch-black night.
There is the thinness of my
delicate bones, sensitive as glass,
been through so much.
The blackness of my eyes
reflect the light of everyone else,
the purity of my inner thoughts.
Thank you, ocean. Thank you, rain.
Plastic Poetry is a project of O, Miami and Free Plastic and is made possible with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; The Children’s Trust; The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation | Crearte; The Miami Foundation; the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture; and the National Endowment for the Arts. Learn more at O, Miami.
