In 2013, FEAST Miami, co-founded by Chef Loren Pulitzer and producer/curator Susan Caraballo, won a Knight Arts Challenge grant to support artistic and cultural initiatives through direct grants to artists and arts organizations. The grants are awarded during vegan pop-up dinners at art venues, and the diners who attend the dinners will vote for one project to be funded.

Amanda Keeley. Photo by Jorge Graupera

Amanda Season Keeley, a graduate of Parson’s School of Design in NYC, won the inaugural FEAST Miami grant for her project Exile Books. “The bookstore,” Keeley writes, “is dedicated to raising awareness about artist’s publications and will serve as a platform for exchange, grounded in the spirit of collaboration.”

Keeley’s interest in art history inspired Exile Books. The past, she believes, is vital to our future because it keeps the past alive and the conversation going. Exile Books will become a roving artist’s bookstore conceived on the idea of mobility and public access.

The temporary bookstore will migrate throughout several locations in Miami, and at each location the bookstore will morph to present thematically relevant content curated by Keeley. The content will connect directly with public programing, such as lectures and performances, going on in and/or around a particular venue.

Exile Books will premiere this September at Locust Projects in collaboration with artist Sarah Crowner, focusing on the history of theater, set design and movement.