Local Voices (Miami)

Hannah is.........living her dream. Born in Santa Cruz, California, she was put into ballet by her parents at an early age, and graduated high school in just 3 years, focused on her goal of pursuing dance professionally. After being initially rejected by the Juilliard School in New York City, she went to go study at the University of Utah, where she was introduced to modern dance, and fell in love...

Daniella is.......the mayor of Miami-Dade County. Born in New York City in 1955, she had the opportunity to travel Brazil and Chile in her youth, before going to high school in Brooklyn, and studying psychology at Yale University. Having helped her mom in the slums of Rio de Janeiro as a little girl, she realized that community welfare was always her main ambition, and went on to graduate school a...

Julie is the encouraging writing coach, respected nationwide, and based here in Miami. After studying English, and getting her Masters and Phd in Literature, she taught at the university level for 10 years, before starting her own company 3 years ago, to help writers, mostly adults, learn how to better tell their stories. With the barriers to publishing being much lower nowadays, Julie is passiona...

Josh is the smiling fitness trainer here in South Beach, with a dream to bring more boxing exercise classes to the masses. Born in New Jersey, near Manhattan, he studied criminal justice in college, before pivoting to his true passion and getting a job at Equinox in Chelsea, New York, He excelled as a trainer and created his own group fitness concept called Ablab in Manhattan, when the pandemic st...

Stephanie is the sweet real estate agent from Panama, who is part of a great top rated brokerage here in Miami ( https://miamiresidential.com/ ), and a great choice for anyone moving here or looking at at a new lease this year. After moving from Panama to the states 9 years ago, she finally found her way to Miami 4 years ago, and got her license in real estate while she was doing some marketing at...

Brittany Brave is the marvelous Mrs. Maisel of Miami, born in New Jersey, raised in Kendall, and developed as an improv teacher, she has taken her personal hardship of the last decade and used it to evolve further as an artist, standing up on stage now all by herself and dishing jokes nightly. Initially in the PR industry after studying PR and Theatre at UF, she studied improv in New York & Second...

Emilia is the sunrise greeter of Miami Beach, a loving yoga teacher, singer, voice coach, sound healer, and Jamaican dance hall instructor. After growing up on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, and loving surfing and singing, her family encouraged her to go to school on the mainland, where she found herself studying language and phonetics at the University of Miami. She worked as a translator while ma...

Amaris is the intelligent vibrant soul in soul food, who truly cares about making a difference. Raised in South Philly, she first started loving cooking at her father's church on South Street, where she would help sell dinners on Friday and Saturday nights. After getting into property management, she answered the call one day to be the lifestyle manager for Sean Combs, and proceeded to create a co...

Ana is the grassy knoll fun loving painter of Miami. Sitting on her chair outside on Ocean Drive, she enjoys bringing Art Deco buildings to life in watercolor drawings from her seat in the shade in Lummus Park. Born in Spain, and trained in accounting, Ana has embraced her retirement and has fallen more and more in love with the process of painting. A regular at local South Florida competitions, a...

ALI is the bold all caps fashionista and local super volunteer who has a lot to teach each of us about developing a more complete sense of agency. Born in Long Beach, Long Island, into a Brooklyn based family with roots in Miami, Vegas, & Cuba, she won an academic scholarship to study education & conceptual art at NYU, getting her MFA and also studying a bit at Parson's School of Design. She was a...

Ignacio is the inspirational visual artist from Uruguay who recently won a contest to create a 4000sq ft mural in South Beach, Miami. After being born into an artist family, and quite literally into a gallery, he studied architecture and the arts in Uruguay, and won many awards in his country, before moving here seven years ago with his wife. Working as a waiter in Kendall by day, and creating var...

Fran is the spirited 80 year old Jewish retiree.....who spreads love everywhere she goes. After studying early childhood development in New York and dedicating her life to children, she followed her husband's love of Miami here to the Magic City, and fell in love with it herself. An avid salsera and aficionado of Latin music, Fran is an inspiration to all those here reaching their golden years. As...

Michael is the charming producer and art collector of Miami, who truly rocks the community. After studying interior design at Parson's in Paris, and architecture at the Pratt Institute, he networked his way into producing for MTV and PlumTV, a luxury media source that relocated him to Miami. He has won 4 Emmys for his short films, and blossomed into a talented contemporary art dealer, with his own...

Ricky is the most consistent dance instructor in Miami, and the most highly rated by his students. Born in Bogota, Colombia, he moved here at an early age and first fell in love with dancing salsa with his wife. After realizing he had a special talent, he invested himself in learning to become an instructor, and ended up teaching at several dance studios, before starting Salsa Central. Now located...

Tony is.......the enforcer. Born in New York, schooled in Jamaica, and accomplished as a D1 basketball athlete at the University of Delaware, Tony has found his niche as a supreme motivator in the sports world, and one who leads by example. After training athletes like Gronk & D Wade, and launching a popular video series on Youtube sharing his techniques, he has turned his focus to enabling more p...

Michael is the fun loving Miami Beach City Commissioner who will very likely be mayor someday. That's how much he loves our city. Since growing up here as a kid, in Little Havana and Coral Gables, and studying at UM, he has become more and more involved and connected every year, and is now one of the reasons Miami Beach is so clean and great. Dare I say it a paradise half the year that will only c...

Stephanie is the passionate restaurant owner of the world famous Miami Beach cheeseburger joint, Cheeseburger Baby. After moving to Miami as a teenager, she worked in the service industry from day 1, holding all kinds of interesting jobs, before finding her place as manager and owner of her own restaurant, taking over from legendary promoter, Tommy Pooch. Since 2004, she has turned the burger hots...

Harvey is the groovy leader of a local Miami arts magazine ( https://www.miamiartzine.com/ ) and also sits on the board of the South Beach Jazz Festival happening every year in mid January. After moving here from Chicago about 25 years ago, he has witnessed the transformation of Miami from an arts wasteland to an arts mecca, and has proceeded to get more and more involved every year in playing his...

Eddie is the self control master of Miami nightlife, a family man working hard in the age of COVID to adapt and cater to our innate need for release. After moving from Colombia in the year 2000, he started as a valet driver at Senor Frog's and worked his way up to promoting for famous venues Story and Liv, before moving into his current role running bar crawls for tourists in Wynwood, hosting at v...

Victoria is the intense leader of the Miami Beach based yoga studio, Synergy Yoga, now located on Alton Road. After moving to Miami, she took over the studio in 2009 from founder Gaia Budhai, and has brought the first yoga studio in Miami Beach into the digital age, with classes being livestreamed ever since the pandemic began. Follow her on Instagram @victoriabyyoga to experience a bit of her pas...

Mike is the most lovable salsa DJ in Miami, due to his big smile, and passion for the craft. After first taking lessons almost 10 years ago, he has been dancing ever since, and has expanded his skills to include event production and organization. He is open to many diverse styles and is always adapting to the times. Follow him on Instagram @djmcalderon, find him on Facebook @MiamiSalsaDreamTeam, a...

Sandy is the resilient queen of the Miami Beach Botanical Garden ( http://mbgarden.org/ ). After overcoming Zika, Hurricane Irma, and now COVID, she and her team are looking forward to a future that is bright and rosy with opportunity, as the MB garden is poised to become a more consistent event hub for great performances and culinary feasts. Follow the botanical garden on Instagram @miamibeachgar...

Sophie is the energetic leader of the Miami-based sustainability movement, Clean Miami Beach. After noticing that there was a trash problem in the local environment, she starting picking up trash and making like minded friends, until her weekly eco-friendly meetup grew exponentially into the official non profit that exists today. Check out her website, ( https://cleanmiamibeach.org/ ), follow her...

Elliott is the gentle leader of a run based community in Miami.....with the laugh of a lion. As an immigrant of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean, he pursued his knack for fitness and love of leadership, until he started his own tech company in Florida, which has culminated in the mobile application RunAdic ( https://runadic.com/ ). Download the app to meet runners near you, and check out free...

Giovanni is simply.....a legend. As the award winning Pizzaiolo of La Leggenda, he brings his passion every day to his pizzeria on Espanola Way in South Beach, and wants nothing more than to spread Neopolitan Pizza (done right) throughout the world. Get inspired by listening to his charisma, or better yet by trying out his pizza, the best on the planet. Follow @laleggendapizzeria OR @giovannilaleg...