Bakehouse has commissioned a collaborative public art project by poet Arsimmer McCoy and visual artist Chris Friday that responds to the organization’s legacy of serving as a sanctuary of production—from its time as a bakery producing Merita bread to its past three-plus decades as an important center of artistic and cultural production. Located on the north-facing wall of our campus along NW 33nd Street, Ode to Bakehouse features words written by the poet in honor of the institution’s anniversary interwoven with monumental visuals created by the artist.
Ode to Bakehouse
(In honor of the intentional practices of the Bakehouse Art Complex; past, present, and eternity)
Here I have made you a home
Constructed on concrete and grit
I have moved you from the stone
Domes and back-beating heat
From kneading millet and wild wheat
Rock paintings in Laas Gaal
Fingers trained from inception to create
and sustain
Come in here with the knowledge of sacrifice Stretch your hands and remember
Creation is humanity
You have been left a sanctuary
Disguised as a bakery
Founded on the righteous commonsense
To feed the lifeblood of the city
See how the baby bringing bread home Became strong
and emulated the baker
by becoming
an artist
Arsimmer McCoy | 2021
About the Artists
Chris Friday (b. 1987, Miami, FL) is a multidisciplinary artist whose portfolio includes large-scale mixed-media works on paper, murals, video, ceramics, projections, photography, illustration, and social practice/activism through curating. Her work was featured in the solo presentation “Good Times” at Oolite Arts (Miami Beach, FL 2023), The Cartography Project presented by the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC, 2022), Yard Sale x Lucy St., an exhibition and interactive shop presented by The Wolfsonian (Miami Beach, FL, 2021), and “#WhoOwnsBlackArt?” presented by Zeal Press at Muce 305 (Miami, FL, 2019). Friday received “The Ellies” Creator award from Oolite Arts (2021) and The GMBCV People’s Choice award for her work in Miami Beach’s No Vacancy juried art show (2021). She has participated in residencies at Anderson Ranch Arts Center (Snowmass, CO, 2022), Bakehouse Art Complex (Miami, FL, 2021), and the Visual Arts Residency at Chautauqua Institute (Chautauqua, NY, 2019). She is currently a resident artist at Oolite Arts in Miami, Florida. Friday received an MFA from Florida International University (2020) and a BFA from New World School of the Arts (2015), where she is an adjunct professor.
Arsimmer McCoy (b. 1988, Miami, FL) is a writer, poet, educator, creative programmer, and cultural producer. Currently, she is the Residency Coordinator for AIRIE, a not-for-profit operating in Everglades National Park that supports an immersive residency for artists to explore the intersection of arts and the environment. McCoy has been a teaching artist for 5+ years and has worked with organizations such as Scrap Paper, Inc., O, Miami Sunroom Poetry School, Honeyshine Camp, Urgent Inc., and the Miami-Dade Public Library System. McCoy completed the Summer Open residency at Bakehouse Art Complex in 2021 and an AIRIE Fellowship residency in 2022. She is the recipient of the 2021 Miami Foundation Racial Equity Grant and a Locust Project 2021 Wavemaker Grant recipient.