I was reminded this week of a story I read about Miami long before I ever knew I would live here. It is called “Myths Over Miami” by Lynda Edwards and it illustrates an emergent mythology shared by homeless children in the city. The children talk about a struggle between angels and demons in visceral fashion, complete with creation myth and modern vernacular. It remains one of the most touching long form articles I have ever read.

The homeless children’s chief ally is a beautiful angel they have nicknamed the Blue Lady. She has pale blue skin and lives in the ocean, but she is hobbled by a spell. “The demons made it so she only has power if you know her secret name,” says Andre, whose mother has been through three rehabilitation programs for crack addiction. “If you and your friends on a corner on a street when a car comes shooting bullets and only one child yells out her true name, all will be safe. Even if bullets tearing your skin, the Blue Lady makes them fall on the ground. She can talk to us, even without her name. She says: ‘Hold on.'”

The story was published in 1997, 24 years ago now. After being here only a few weeks, it’s clear that Miami got a huge facelift shortly after the turn of the millennium, rendering many of the neighborhoods, buildings and locations mentioned in the article unrecognizable.

I was leaving work on Friday and very late for an appointment so I took a Lyft to my destination. The driver turned out to be a former employee of a homeless shelter and we discussed the changing face of the city as we drove through the neighborhoods of Edgewater, Overtown and Buena Vista. The shelter he worked at no longer exists.

Experiment

My experiment, if you could call it that, was a 20 mile walk through Miami. I enjoy long walks through cities because it lets you see the gradations of lifestyle, class and land use at a very granular level. Miami is a “mixed-use” city, as much leisure as industry. The tony Design District sits just south of Buena Vista, a much more working class neighborhood where the residents await gentrification much like all citizens of Miami await rising sea levels.

The Miami depicted in “Myths Over Miami” (1997) is the same Miami where they filmed Something About Mary (1998). I tried to carry these two Miamis in my mind as I walked. Many of the locations in the film no longer exist.

Location details are sparse in the article, but I was able to identify Liberty City and parts of Little River. I heard you could see manatees in a park in Little River and wondered if this was the same river mentioned in the story.

“There’s a river that runs through Miami. One side, called Bad Streets, the demons took over… The other side the demons call Good Streets. Rich people live by a beach there. They wear diamonds and gold chains when they swim.”

“The Devil got loose from under the river!” Ronnie said. “The rich people didn’t stop him!”

Walking east from the park took me through a commercial road and across Biscayne Bay as the sun set. Walking across the bridge I spotted some abandoned boats in the water.

I ended up at North Beach, miles away from the raucous in the south. A stiff but warm wind was coming from the north and I realized I was alone on a massive beach with all the trappings of luxury around me. Under a bright half-moon I took off my clothes and went for a swim. I wondered where everyone was.

After my swim I walked down the main drag in Miami Beach where the devil “moved undetected among high-rolling South Beach club hoppers despite the fact that his skin covered with scales like a gold and silver snake.” and where he “found a large Hell door under the Colony Hotel, and just as he was offering the owner ten Mercedes-Benzes for use of the portal, he was captured by angels.”

At 10pm I ended up in a music store where the owner showed me “the ugliest guitar” he’d ever seen. He said he’s had it for over 50 years. I bought a different guitar from him and walked over the Venetian Bridge back to my temporary apartment.

Cornell Box

3 people

  1. Lynda Edwards – The author of “Myths Over Miami”
  2. Jason King – Architect and author of the terrain vague blog post
  3. An NYU professor that specializes in narcissism? I see a few possibilities on my google results…

 

Questions for librarians

  1. What is the most interesting research path you’ve come across? i.e. started with a specific subject in mind and ended up in completely different territory
  2. What are some of the most underutilized resources?
  3. What’s something a library should do that they don’t do right now?