Blooming Names

Blooming Names: A Flower Memorial

Presented by O, Miami, Belafonte Tacolcy Center, and OLCDC
Project by Elia Khalaf and Sara Rose Darling

On view in Opa-locka on October 2nd-4th
2080 Grant Ave, Opa-Locka, FL 33054

On view between Dec 7th-11th at Tacolcy Center
Sound Healing Session on Dec 7th

Blooming Names is a flower+poetry memorial honoring the names and lives of Black individuals lost to gun violence. The project hopes to hold a safe space for collective grief, prioritizing compassion using poetry, flowers, and therapeutic arts.

This project will be recreated across different neighborhoods in Miami, helping to bring attention to the acute and universal experience Black communities face in the United States, while also offering a space for communal healing, creation and joy. It is a revolutionary act of remembering - in naming - our people and our stories.

Originally envisioned by Miami-based artists Elia Khalaf and Sara Darling, Blooming Names features poetry written by elementary school students of Liberty City and Opa-locka.

Free Sound Healing session hosted by multidisciplinary artist Paloma Dueñas on Monday, December 7, 2020.

Production and print made possible thanks to Creative Creative

In Opa-locka, art therapists Deanna Barton and Elia Khalaf facilitated workshops to support healing and create a therapeutic space for families to process personal, political, and communal loss. Participating families received a creative care package with materials for their chosen workshop:

• Local poet Darius Daughtry led the first of two workshops on Saturday, 9/26, collaborating with families to craft the language for the memorial plaque.
• Local muralist Chire Regans (VantaBlack) led the second of two workshops on Saturday, 9/26, collaborating with families to design the plaque’s typography/lettering of the names and poems.
• A week after the installation, in the final workshop on Saturday Oct 10th, local floral artist Sara Darling engages families in making their own mini floral memorials, to commemorate their own loved ones and continue the workshops’ goal of self care.