Art + Poetry: A Look at the SWEAT Broadsheet Portfolio

4/10/25

Each year in April, National Poetry Month is celebrated to honor the vital role and influence poetry makes within our culture and society. Established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, this commemorative month aims to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the United States by highlighting the achievements of poets, encouraging the reading and sharing of poetry and integrating the art form into everyday life. Tens of millions of readers, students, teachers, librarians, booksellers and poets participate each year.

In recognition of National Poetry Month, the Library’s Digital Collections team is highlighting work that brings together poetry and visual arts, such as the SWEAT Broadsheet Portfolio, a collaborative project created by poets and visual artists from South Florida. Each piece in the collection shows how these two art forms blend while also celebrating the voices and stories of our local creative community.

The SWEAT Broadsheet collaboration was launched in the summer of 2009 by a group of South Florida book artists, poets, novelists and printmakers with the goal of fostering creative exchange across disciplines. Spearheaded by Lea Nickless, Carol Todaro, Michael Hettich, Rosemarie Chiarlone and Tom Virgin, the project began with an intimate gathering at SWEAT Records in Little Haiti where several writers and artists came together to share their passion for storytelling. Writers were tasked with reading for five minutes each, while each artist projected five of their inspired works on the walls of SWEAT Records, setting the tone for what would become a dynamic series.

Through a succession of planned events, artists and writers from Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties were invited to meet, share their work and produce literary broadsheets. This effort led to the creation of the SWEAT Broadsheet Portfolio, which grew to include an impressive 79 literary broadsheets, each measuring 12” x 18”, produced by 46 visual artists and 42 writers from across South Florida.

Exhibitions of the growing body of work began in 2009 in Wynwood and continued showcasing in venues, such as Miami Dade College (MDC) Centre Gallery and ArtCenter South Florida (2012), MDC Kendall (2014), the Greenlease Gallery at Rockhurst University in Kansas City (2015), the Center for Book Arts in New York (2016) and our Main Library (2019). The SWEAT Broadsheet Portfolio is now part of the collections at both the MDC Museum of Art and Design and the Library’s Permanent Art Collection.

Nest in Blue/Let It Always Be Blue’ by Alette Simmons-Jimenez and Antonia Wright, 2012

To view the complete SWEAT Broadsheet Portfolio collection and learn more, click here.