Jillian Hernandez gives voice to girls and women of color in her 2020 book Aesthetics of Excess: The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment. In this episode, you’ll hear how she has been delving into the “aesthetic hierarchies” of femme culture for more than a decade. Research, critical writing, and personal experience come together to enrich this vividly illustrated book. Hernandez shares a few stories of her own fraught adolescence, along with those of Women on the Rise!, a community of teenage girls for whom she and local artists created opportunities to collide with art, through the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. 

Sound Editor: Anamnesis Audio | Special Audio: Chonga Girls, “Chongalicious,” Crystal Pearl Molinary, “Off the Chain”

Related Episodes:
Puerto Rico Rising—Resisting Paradise https://freshartinternational.com/2021/02/24/puerto-rico-rising-resisting-paradise/
The Awakening https://freshartinternational.com/2021/01/27/women-artists-curators-awakening/
Topical Playlist—Art and Feminism https://freshartinternational.com/2020/10/28/topical-playlist-feminist-art/

Related Links
Jillian Hernandez, University of Florida https://people.clas.ufl.edu/jillianhernandez/
Duke University Press https://www.dukeupress.edu/aesthetics-of-excess
Women on the Rise!: Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami https://mocanomi.org/2012/03/women-on-the-rise/

Fresh Art International

Aesthetics of Excess—with Jillian Hernandez

Welcome to Miami Moves Me, a podcast brought to you by a team of University of Miami students in Spring 2020. We’re working to bring you stories about our city to enjoy during and after quarantine. Our semester changed drastically with the COVID-19 outbreak. Although some of our stories were recorded before the pandemic, many of our episodes will also incorporate this new perspective as we explore the different areas and aspects of Miami. Here we introduce you to our awesome class and the voices you will be hearing over the next few weeks:This is an amazing team of podcast creators! Get excited to hear our stories about Miami!

Introducing Miami Moves Me - AMS350

Welcome to Miami Moves Me, the podcast that takes you to experience the past, present, and future of this city. I’m Jonathan Raskauskas. Today, I  take you to North Beach for Juggerknot Theatre’s Production of Miami Motel Stories. This is an interactive play where the audience enters different rooms in a motel to encounter scenes and stories from the past! Miami Motel Stories was truly an immersive experience that I recommend to anyone in the Miami area. I felt the pain and joy that the characters felt because you were able to experience a little excerpt from their life.

A Hasidic Jew, a Christian Prohibitionist, and a Honeymooning Couple In The Same Motel

Welcome to Miami Moves Me, a podcast brought to you by a team of University of Miami students in Spring 2020. We’re working to bring you stories about our city to enjoy during and after quarantine.

Our semester changed drastically with the COVID-19 outbreak. Although some of our stories were recorded before the pandemic, many of our episodes will also incorporate this new perspective as we explore the different areas and aspects of Miami. 

Here we introduce you to our awesome class and the voices you will be hearing over the next few weeks. This is an amazing team of podcast creators! Get excited to hear our stories about Miami.

Student Creators: Diana Borras, Gretchell Cano, Luz Estrella Cruz, Kurt Gessler, Melissa Huberman, Kristian Kranz, Reese McMichael, Jonathan Raskauskas, Ben Vinarski

Introducing "Miami Moves Me"

In sunny Downtown Miami, diverse artists are coming together to form a living, breathing community.

But this city isn’t all sunshine, and after dark, a certain exhibition space on East Flagler lets you peek into the void.

Staring into the Void, with Artist David McCauley

Miami Circle: A Conversation with Catherine Hummingbird Ramirez

Today we take you inside one dimension of the city’s contemporary art world. I had a rare opportunity to gaze into that world in real life, before the coronavirus pandemic forced most experiences with art into the virtual realm. Prior to #stayathome restrictions, , the art world relied on in-person access to art in galleries, museums, exhibitions and art fairs to raise awareness of emerging and well known artists, and to create a market for their work.  .

I had the chance to explore Miami’s Art Wynwood, an annual art fair that takes place early in the year, a few months after Miami Art Week, the international art event that floods the city with art, artists, curators, gallerists and collectors every December. Inside the fair, I met artist Yucef Merhi and gallerist Robert Fontaine.  My first-ever experience of an art fair left me eager to explore Miami’s art scene when South Florida opens up again.


Art Wynwood is an annual Miami-based fair that launched in 2012.  The fair showcases works by emerging talent, mid-career artists, blue chip contemporaries, and well known post-war and modern artists. Art Wynwood was once located in Miami’s Wynwood District. Now, the fair brings together 60 galleries and over 165 artists inside a huge tent set up at the site where the Miami Herald newspaper once operated.  The fair features galleries based in a dozen countries, including the U.S.,France, Canada and the Netherlands. 

Robert Fontaine Galleryis a gallery that opened in 2010. Now situated in Miami Beach, the gallery provides a platform for emerging, mid career and master artists showing works ranging from pop art to digital media.
Bonnier Art Gallery is a fine art gallery with a focus on minimalist and conceptual art. Grant and Christina Bonnier opened the gallery in 2018, in Allapattah, Miami’s newest art district.

Producer: Diana Borras
Postproduction: Joe DeMarco
Photography: Diana Borras

Diana Borras is currently a senior studying political science and a minor in international studies. In her free time she likes to explore whether it's getting into another world through a good book, or getting on a plane to discover what this beautiful planet has to offer us.She loves learning about new cultures, and about new things. She also enjoys creating content such as podcasts, videos, and photos.  

Related Episodes: https://soundcloud.com/freshartinternational/sets/miami-moves-me
Related Links:http://yucef.com
https://www.robertfontainegallery.com
https://www.thebonniergallery.com
https://www.artwynwood.com

Hashtags: #ArtWynwood, #RobertFontaineGallery #BonnierArtGallery #MiamiMovesMe #artfair #studentpodcast #univmiami #studentedition

Looking into the Business of Art

Welcome to Miami Moves Me, the podcast that takes you to experience the past, present, and future of this city. I’m Jonathan Raskauskas. Due to coronavirus complications, the University of Miami closed the campus in March 2020.  I am currently stuck finishing the Spring semester at home in Naples, Florida! This episode proves that  you can survive not only the virus but also your pestering family members’ inability to comprehend the word “privacy.” Listen for advice from my sister and parents: a teacher, a renowned doctor, and a veterinarian.

How to Survive the Coronavirus Quarantine

In this episode, I had the honor to discuss my engagement on Earth Day while having a conversation with the Miami Moves Me Podcast team discussing the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day and its impact in a time during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Voices in order of appearance with major:
Jonathan Raskauskas (Computer Science), Melissa Huberman (Neuroscience), Luz Estrella Cruz (Film & Africana Studies), Kurt Gessler (Architecture), Kristian Kranz (), Diana Borras (Political Science & International Relations), Reese McMichael (Political Science), and Ben Vinarski (Neuroscience)

Producer: Gretchell Cano
Co-Producer: Cathy Byrd

Earth Day 50th Anniversary Conversation

In a city renowned for its beauty and often regarded as a paradise,
Miami can sure be a nightmare to get around. In her new book Making Good Time, Editor Lynne Barrett shares true stories, written by authors across Miami, about the dos and don’ts of getting around
South Florida. I had the opportunity to Interview her on the Making of
the book, as well as author Les Standiford, and poet-engineer Richard Blanco.

How to Make Good Time in South Florida

Today’s episode, Juan Mullerat and Plusurbia, discusses the success in urban planning for Miami based design firm Plusurbia, and its founder, Juan Mullerat. In the fast paced urbanization that Miami is currently undergoing, Juan is at the forefront of the planning battle, elected responsible for maintaining the cultural character of Miami’s most cherished neighborhoods. In detail, Juan addresses Plusurbia’s most recent project of Little Havana, and the keys to success for the design process. For anyone looking to learn more about the redevelopment of Miami and the key players behind the scenes, look no further than Plusurbia’s projects.

Juan Mullerat and Plusurbia: Behind the scenes in Miami's Urban Planning

Fresh Art International with curator Cathy Byrd features Conversations About Creativity with Joan Jonas, Jason Moran, Irene Hofmann, William Pope.L, Theaster Gates, Tania Bruguera, Stephen Vitiello, Camille Norment, Franklin Sirmans, Cheryl Pope, Lynda Benglis, Jillian Mayer, Sylvie Fortin, Andrea Bowers, Remy Jungerman, Louis Grachos, and more.

Aesthetics of Excess—with Jillian Hernandez

Fresh Art International

Related tracks