Home » Home-Slider » “Literally Everyone’s Invited: An Ode to South Florida”

“Literally Everyone’s Invited: An Ode to South Florida”

Introduction to Tom Hudson + Melody Santiago Cummings. 2:30 min. Interview: Raymond Elman. Post-Production: Lee Skye. Music: Camen Cicnero. Recorded via Zoom, 10/15/2025, Miami.

Editor’s Note: We previously published an ArtSpeak video conversation with Tom Hudson in 2018: https://artspeak.fiu.edu/performing-arts/tom-hudson/ Mr. Hudson will be speaking at the Miami Book Fair 2025 in several sessions on November 22 & 23.

TOM HUDSON is WLRN’s Senior Economics Editor and Special Correspondent. Hudson’s extensive reporting on South Florida’s economy has taken him from the waters of Florida Bay to the depths of the PortMiami tunnel (and countless offices and conference rooms). He has interviewed bartenders and bankers, caregivers and CEOs to report on the people behind economic statistics.

He began his business reporting career in March 2000, just weeks after the dot-com bubble burst. He has reported from the trading floors of the CME, Chicago Board Options Exchange, NASDAQ and New York Stock Exchange. He previously served as Vice President of News at WLRN when he created and hosted The Sunshine Economy for 10 years. He was managing editor and co-anchor of Nightly Business Report on PBS.

Hudson is married with two sons and advises every bicycle rider to always wear their helmet.

https://www.elisaturner.com/

MELODY SANTIAGO CUMMINGS is the Executive Director of O, Miami. Her journey with O, Miami began in 2013 when she joined the organization, then known as University of Wynwood as its operations manager. With extensive experience in developing collaborative strategic partnerships and non-prescriptive program design, she spearheaded hundreds of mission-oriented events and special projects that have elevated O, Miami into the organization it is today. Her accolades include being honored as a “Miami Leader” for the 2019-20 term by The Miami Foundation and recognized as a Knight Foundation 2022 Knight Arts Champion. As a creative strategist, she was recruited by Apple to become Head of Programming, where she orchestrated global artist-led experiences for Apple Music and Today at Apple from 2021-2023. Above all, she is a devoted mother, wife, and proud first-generation Miamian of Puerto Rican and Cuban ancestry, deeply rooted in her love for the 305.

https://omiami.org/about-us/about-us-page

The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by Success Factor, and run between 30 seconds and 5 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 0:52 sec.

Tom, when did you first become aware of O, Miami?

COLLABORATION: 4:41 min.

My large-scale, mixed-media portraits of poets like U.S. Poet Laureates Robert Pinsky and Stanley Kunitz are in the collection of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. And ArtSpeak has published video conversations with many notable poets like U.S. Poet Laureates like Pinsky, Juan Felipe Herrera, and Billy Collins. We should collaborate on an O, Miami exhibition.

SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES: 4:52 min.