Jazzercise is a language

O, Miami invites you to celebrate the release of Jazzercise Is a Language by Miami-born poet, Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué.

Jazzercise is a Language is a long poem that wants to be a smiling, skinny white woman. Here are the leg warmers, head bands, sweat, chants, and two-steps of the 1980's dance aerobics craze, but decked with the baggage of race, pixelation, rituals, violence, and body horror.

The event also features readings by Cherry Pickman and Michael Angel Martín.

Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué is a Miami <-> Philly gay, Latino Leo living in Philadelphia, PA. He is the author of the poetry books Jazzercise is a Language (The Operating System, 2018), about the exercise craze of the 1980s, and Oil and Candle (Timeless, Infinite Light, 2016), on ritual and racism. He is also the author of chapbooks on gay sex, Cher, the Legend of Zelda, and anxious bilingualism. His third book Losing Miami, on the potential sinking of Miami due to climate change and sea level rise, is forthcoming from Civil Coping Mechanisms.

Cherry Pickman is the author of Theory of Tides, winner of the Poetry Society of America’s Chapbook Fellowship. Her work has appeared in 32 Poems, American Poetry Review, Bennington Review, Boston Review, Dossier, Indiana Review, and PEN, among others. A selection of her poems was included in Eight Miami Poets (2015), an anthology published by Jai-Alai Books. She lives in Miami, Florida.

Michael Angel Martín's poems and book reviews have appeared in Dappled Things, Apogee, the Anglican Theological Review, Modern Literature, Green Mountains Review, Presence, and elsewhere. He lives in Miami, FL, with his wife, the poet Annik Adey-Babinski, and their cat, Tina.