DIY Culture

The Culture Edit, April 28th-May 11th

Author

Susan Bannon
April 27, 2025

With the arts season winding down (you’ll notice several season finales in this newsletter), you may find yourself needing to provide a little culture for yourself. Fortunately, Miami has got you covered with interesting classes in disciplines across the board.

You could pick up some film editing or acting skills at FilmGate Miami. Or explore modern dance alongside some of our city’s most exciting dance artists with Syncopate Collective. If you’ve always wanted to try your hand at art, Oolite Arts has classes in everything from painting to textiles. Lots to explore and get us through those mostly performance-free summer months.

On the restaurant front, Chicago steakhouse Maple & Ash recently opened near(ish) the Arsht Center and the beach’s newly renovated Shelborne, with a great-looking new bar and restaurant, opens May 1st around the corner from New World Center. I’m sure I’ll be recommending those a lot.

Let’s get planning...

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Tuesday, April 29th

Wilco at the Fillmore

Since forming in 1994, Wilco has run the gamut from alternative to country, continuing to put out new music the entire time. Their latest album, 2023’s Cousin, found them returning to their experimental roots, with a lot of comparisons to their 2001 breakout album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The band’s current world tour will bring them to the Fillmore Miami Beach for one night only. If you get a ticket, you can request a song on their concert page.

8pm, The Fillmore Miami Beach, $64-$300

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Also on April 29th:

  • The final Miami City Ballet Impromptu performance, a free community showcase of new choreography by many of MCB’s principal dancers, at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens, at 6:30pm.

Wednesday, April 30th

MOCA: Spring Exhibition Openings

The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami hosts an artists reception to celebrate the opening of its new spring exhibitions. Magnetic Fields will be the first career retrospective of the work of Miami artist Philip Smith, showcasing five decades of his vibrant, chromatic paintings on spiritual themes. The Maiden is The Warrior is the first solo exhibition for Haitian-American artist Vickie Pierre, whose surrealist collages and immersive installations incorporate found objects. On view in the courtyard is Bearing Bonds, a sculpture installation by Avi Young. Refreshments provided by LALO Tequila.

7-9pm, MOCA Paradise Courtyard, $10 (or free for Members or North Miami residents)

Neighborhood: North Miami

Also on April 30th:

  • FilmGate Miami’s Comedy Festival presents a night of comedic short films by Miami’s funniest up-and-coming filmmakers, at the Silverspot Cinema downtown, at 6:30pm (use promo code INSIDER for a 10% discount).

  • The O, Miami Poetry Festival closes out with In the Belly of the Bird: Godmother, a poetic dance meditation by director and choreographer Pioneer Winter at the YoungArts Jewel Box, at 7pm.

Friday, May 2nd

The Cleveland Orchestra: Elgar and Holst

Considered by many to be the finest symphony orchestra in the country, The Cleveland Orchestra finishes out its Miami residency with a blockbuster performance under the baton of “The Flying Maestro” Daniel Harding. First on the program is Elgar’s sublime song cycle Sea Pictures, featuring the velvety contralto of opera star Avery Amereau. Then, the CO tackles Holst’s emotional masterpiece The Planets - from the bellicose dissonance of “Mars, the Bringer of War” to the electrifying “Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity.”

8pm, Knight Concert Hall at Arsht, $45-$189

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Saturday, May 3rd

NWS Season Finale with Gil Shaham

World-renowned violinist Gil Shaham and London Philharmonic Principal Conductor Edward Gardner join forces for New World Symphony’s season finale. Shaham will take on Dvořák’s fiery Violin Concerto, one of his most performed works and a staple of the international violin repertoire. Also on the program will be Musgrave’s Song of the Enchanter and Bartók’s masterpiece Concerto for Orchestra, written shortly before his death.

7:30pm Saturday, New World Center, $80-$150

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

Nearby Eats: Pauline at the Shelborne, Blue Ribbon Sushi, Mimi Chinese | Drinks: Water Lion at the Sagamore, Little Torch at the Shelborne

Also on May 3rd:

  • The art galleries of Little Haiti and Little River open their doors for the next installment of Little Haiti Little River Art Days, from 12-5pm, with an afterparty at Offsite Nano Brewery from 5-7pm.

  • Baker Hall Gallery celebrates the opening of a new exhibit of work by Cuban partners and artists Yanira Lopez and Alexis Oliva with a reception in their new Allapattah space, from 6-9pm.

  • Adele Myers and Dancers and Miami Light Project invite audiences on a quest for a better future in a world gone FABULOUS, a new dance work on themes of grit and glamor, at Miami Theater Center at 7pm.

  • The Cleveland Orchestra performs Holst’s The Planets for a second night, at Knight Concert Hall at 8pm.

Sunday, May 4th

Florida Grand Opera: Final Sing

In addition to mounting three major operas per season, Florida Grand Opera mentors a talented group of young singers each year as part of its FGO Studio. At the end of each season, these Studio Artists get a chance to sing their hearts out and show off what they’ve learned in FGO’s Final Sing, a free concert for the community.

5pm, Free, Trinity Episcopal Cathedral

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Nearby Eats: IKO Miami, Casadonna, Klaw | Drinks: Casadonna, Klaw

Also on May 4th:

Happening NEXT Week:

Because maybe your friends are busy this week. Or you're busy this week. Or this week just seems too soon to pull your act together and make a plan.

Thursday, May 8th

Gilsons at the Bandshell

Francisco, João, and José Gil, aka the “Gilsons,” are respectively the sons and grandson of Gilberto Gil, the legendary Brazilian singer-songwriter and political activist. The trio blends pop rock, samba, rap and Bahiano rhythms, but draws particular inspiration from the classic “música popular brasileira” sound that is their - and Brazil's - musical heritage. Their debut US tour last year was a hit, and the Bandshell date sold out, so get those tickets!

8pm, Miami Beach Bandshell, $37

Neighborhood: North Beach

Also on May 8th:

  • The Comeuppance, an award-winning play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, opens for previews in the Carnival Studio Theater at Arsht, at 7:30pm (see Saturday feature).

Friday, May 9th

Alejandro Ospina: The Kingdom in the Middle

La Cometa Gallery celebrates the opening of The Kingdom in the Middle, a new solo show by London-based Colombian artist Alejandro Ospina. Ospina’s large-scale works underlay images of masterpieces of draftsmanship by figures like Gorky and Miró under layers of Ospina’s paintings, creating something abstract from multiple representative works. You can check out his work and technique here.

5-8pm, Galeria La Cometa, Free

Neighborhood: Allapattah

Also on May 9th:

  • HistoryMiami celebrates the opening of Waves of Style: Swimwear Through the Decades, with live music, light bites, and cocktails, from 7-10pm.

  • Zoetic Stage’s new production of The Comeuppance celebrates its opening night performance in the Carnival Studio Theater at Arsht, at 7:30pm.

  • Pianists Thito Camargo and Phil DeGreg of Dranoff 2 Piano Fusion take on the music Brazil in From Rio 2 Miami, at Sanctuary of the Arts at 8pm.

Saturday, May 10th

Zoetic Stage: The Comeuppance

Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is having quite a Miami year, with Zoetic Stage’s production of his award-winning play, The Comeuppance, following a great run of his Broadway hit Appropriate at Gablestage earlier this season. The Comeuppance follows a self-proclaimed "Multi-Ethnic Reject Group" that reconvenes for their 20th high school reunion. Over alcohol and other substances, they try to reconnect who they once were with whom they've become. Performances through May 25th.

7:30pm, Carnival Studio Theater at Arsht, $56-$61

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Also on May 10th:

Sunday, May 11th 

MISO Season Finale: Mother’s Day Celebration

Miami Symphony Orchestra closes out its 2024-25 season with a special Mother’s Day musical celebration at Knight Concert Hall. Maestro Eduardo Marturet will lead the orchestra through a selection of beloved works, including Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, Beethoven’s Romance No. 2, Mozart’s Andante, and the iconic music from Carmen by George Bizet (Miami and Carmen have certainly had a date with destiny this spring). One very nice touch: all the mothers in attendance with receive a rose of appreciation.

6pm, Knight Concert Hall at Arsht, $40-$140

Neighborhood: Downtown Arts & Entertainment District

Also on May 11th:

  • The Betsy Hotel presents a special Mother’s Day brunch as part of their Jazz at the Betsy series, featuring the Julie Davis and Kelly Dow Jazz Duo, who have been touring the American Songbook together for thirty years, 11am-4pm.

  • Zoetic Stage’s new production of The Comeuppance gets a matinee performance in the Carnival Studio Theater at Arsht, at 2:30pm.

  • The Miami Short Film Festival presents a selection of five short films from Europe, with a reception at 7pm before the screening at 7:30pm, at Deering Estate.

Planning Ahead:

Miami's most anticipated events sell out and those new restaurants you want to try book up. Here are a couple of upcoming events to get on your calendar now…

Friday, May 16th

Wanda Sykes: Please and Thank You

Emmy-winning stand-up comic Wanda Sykes has been named one of Entertainment Weekly’s “25 Funniest People in America” and her decades-long career has included six Netflix comedy specials, ABC’s Black-ish, and the new incarnation of Mel Brooks’ History of the World Pt. 2 - along with more projects than I could ever list here. On May 16th, she’s bringing her latest stand-up hour, Please and Thank You, to Miami for one night only. Get those tickets! Thank you.

7:30pm, The Fillmore Miami Beach, $64

Neighborhood: Lincoln Road

May 16th-June 15th

Fat Ham at Gablestage

Gablestage presents the South Florida premiere of Fat Ham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play that relocates the story of Hamlet from a windswept Danish castle to a fly-swatting North Carolina BBQ pit. The familiar storyline follows Juicy, a queer Black kid with a lot on his plate already before his father’s ghost shows up, demanding vengeance. Called “hilarious yet profound” by The New York Times, James Ijames’ play was a hit on Broadway after winning the Pulitzer in 2022.

Performances through June 15th, Gablestage, $40-$50

Neighborhood: Coral Gables

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