Blooming Names

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 is 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.