Gabrielle Tola (’22), a writing major with a creative concentration, contributed a poem to O, Miami’s book titled Waterproof: Evidence of a Miami Worth Remembering, which is described as “a collection of micro-elegies to Miami places.” The book commemorates Miami in the wake of global warming. It will be published in November 2021 and can be pre-ordered here.
Tola’s poem, "Ode to Cypress Gardens Florists," is about a small, local florist shop that has been a monument of her childhood growing up in Miami. She described how she would always look for it on her ride home, and that she went there to buy flowers for her high school graduation. “Having passed there my whole life inspired me to write about them,” she said. “It felt really grounding to me.”
The Cypress Gardens Flower Shop is family-owned and has remained in Miami for generations. Tola said this surprised her: “you usually don’t see family businesses making it that long in Miami because of high rent prices.” This also meant a lot to her because Miami has experienced much change due to gentrification and the constant moving of people.
Tola was highly involved in the poetry activist scene when she was in Miami and had always wanted to be published by Jai Alai Books, the press that published Waterproof but has since changed its name to O, Miami Books. So when she saw that submissions were open for Waterproof, she knew she wanted to submit a poem. Scrolling through photos on her phone, she found many of her in the flower shop and knew that was what she wanted to write about.
To read more about Gabrielle Tola, visit her website here.