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Published: March 10th 2023
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Miami is cool. We figured that out the first time we were here, back at the end of 2019 & beginning of 2020. We were in Miami for New Years, which is also our anniversary. We saw Pitbull perform a free concert in the park, found a late-night Afrobeats party, exercised at South Beach's outdoor workout park, and spent a day driving south to Key West. On that trip, we figured out what we were about around here. Everybody talks about Miami Beach, but our favorite spot was actually Wynwood.
This time, we were here for an overnight layover due to one of our previous flight's being canceled and forcing us to miss our connection (thanks American Airlines!). We got into the airport around 8:30pm, spoke to the ticketing desk to confirm our hotel booking (care of American this time), retrieved our baggage, and caught the shuttle to the hotel. We could already tell our luck was turning around because the hotel desk agents gave Chelly a $30 gift certificate for her birthday. After a quick shower and a few apps and beverages in the bar, we called an Uber straight to Wynwood.
Wynwood was our favorite neighborhood because
of all the BLACK CULTURE around there. I want to be explicit about that. Black people are cool. They wish you no harm, when you're not harming them. I know that being pale-skinned and European-descended can get you some dirty looks and bad vibes in certain black neighborhoods, especially in places with a white majority and racist cultural or governmental infrastructure. This is a natural reaction to systemic racism and I understand it. I've dealt with that as far back as I can remember, like being a teenager who went into black neighborhoods in LA, NY, Boston, Virginia, etc. If you talk to people and you're not an asshole, you'll get along just fine. On the other hand, in places with a black majority where they feel good, the vibes are way different. Wynwood was one of those places where I didn't catch a bad vibe or a dirty look from anyone, just welcoming and inclusion. And a party.
The culture we are talking about is evidenced by Wynwood's graffiti walls. There's actually a spot called "Wynwood Walls" that's like a street museum, but it's closed off at night so we didn't catch it (on either of our trips).
No worries. The entire neighborhood is pretty much covered with graffiti. Businesses hire artists to adorn the outside of their buildings with artwork. Abandoned buildings get tagged. Even the streets and sidewalks are adorned with spray-paint art and sticker tags. I love to soak this stuff in because I used to be a graff writer (graffiti artist) myself way back in the nineteen hundred and nineties.
The culture also shows up in all the great music clubs around there. This night we just walked around the neighborhood taking things in with all the senses. We heard hip-hop, reggae, dancehall, reggaeton, afrobeats, trap, and who knows what else. Music genres are too numerous to keep track of these days, but we heard tons of cool sounds from the South, the East Coast, Caribbean, West Africa, Central & South America. We were looking for a place with dancing, but it was a Thursday night. Pretty much every club, bar, or restaurant we passed had a bumping sound system, but when we looked inside there would only be a few people hanging around eating, drinking, talking or whatever. We went to one spot with old-school DJs spinning all vinyl. That place was
Candid Camera
Dressed up for Miami tonight pretty cool, with a wall of records behind the bar. But, it was standing room only hipster vibes and no one was dancing. A place to get noticed, but not to get down. Eventually we found a latin spot (I think the DJs were Puerto Rican) that switched between hip-hop and reggaeton every 5 songs or so. That was fun, sweaty, crazy. Somebody was celebrating something with sparklers, there was a smoke machine that went off. It was cool. We danced until Chelly was tired of it and wanted to leave (that takes some time, let me tell you).
Another element of this neighborhood is the legal marijuana. I remember the first time we were here seeing guys sell cannabis products and accoutrements from little carts like they were the hot dog man. This time there were dispensaries, head shops, and even ganja trucks driving around with mobile inventory. We weren't quite in the Caribbean, but we were close. One brother from the Bahamas sold us a fresh coconut, a great way to rehydrate. At the end of the night, we found a taco place with the perfect soundtrack of classic reggae and dancehall. I got my plant-based hongos
taco (made with various mushrooms) and it was surprisingly good.
We got home at like, maybe 3am, but it was cool. We'd get about 2 hours of sleep before it was time to go to the airport and on to our next stop.
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