Blooming Bodies

Blooming Bodies is a project supporting cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers through restorative and flower-based workshops to celebrate and honor their bodies. The project, free and open to all, offers an opportunity for passive recipients of treatment to become active artists and poets.

The process of engaging with flowers and writing flower-centered poems about the body positively impacts the wellness of more than 200 patients undergoing treatment in the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, in addition to family, friends, and caregivers.

During the project’s first cycle in 2019, participants created wearable flower arrangements, such as crowns and corsages, as they adorned significant body parts and scars. Awesome Miami Foundation and O, Miami support Blooming Bodies to bring restorative and generative flower-based poetry workshops to Sylvester’s oncology centers.

Participants write Haikus and align physical and sensory experiences to flowers in their different shapes, colors, and phases. The patient-turned-poet crafts structured poems while engaging with natural elements to draw a meaningful connection between plants and people.