Arts

Are you ready for a “Sleepless Night?”

Featuring an almost overwhelming array of 150-plus performances, “Sleepless Night” (a Knight Arts grantee) returns to Miami Beach with 13 consecutive hours of cultural arts and entertainment scattered around the city at strategic locations from South Beach to North Shore. One of the best things about the cultural artsand entertainment festival, besides the breadth of artists involved, is that it is free. The festival runs from 6 p.m. Nov. 5, 2011 through 6 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 6. (Note: daylight saving time adds an extra hour of performances.).

One of the performances I’m looking forward to is Livio Tragtenberg’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Strange.” Presented by Tigertail Productions, the Brazilian-born composer’s sound and video installation will be performed in a cage on Lincoln Road near Washington Avenue on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. What makes “The Cabinet of Dr. Strange” interesting is that Tragtenberg uses an open mic and requests that the audience become part of the art-making process. He invites the audience to sing, scream, hum, babble or utter whatever comes out. The sounds will then be processed by “Dr. Strange” and rebroadcasted. To see an excerpt of “The Cabinet of the Strange,” visit http://www.tigertail.org/events_drstrange.html.

Another favorite is “Intention Intervention,” a live performance and art film by Octavio Campos, Rick Delgado and Dale Penn. Last year Campos made an open call for personal stories, stories by South Floridians who’ve experienced and/or witnessed unimaginable hatred and courage. The interviews were then captured and put into a film that will be presented during “Sleepless Night.” There will also be a live performance of 108 yogis that will take place at midnight the ExoStage at Soundscape at 500 17th St., South Beach. For more, visit www.camposition.org.

Finally, “Sleepless Night” wouldn’t be complete without the irony of Miami Poetry Collective’s “Poem Depot.” Staged in front of the Apple Store on Lincoln Road, the poets of the Collective will conceive and compose odes on demand using manual typewriters, not laptops, for anyone who wants a poem. The Collective will create literature from 8 p.m. until 11 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2011 on Lincoln Road just east of Meridian Avenue.

For a complete listing events, times and locations for “Sleepless Night” 2011, download the full program at http://sleeplessnight.org/?cat=5. Note: All events are free and open to the public.