“Music helped me overcome obstacles in my life,” says Carol City native Frankie Midnight, who comes from a musical family.
With the matinee idol name of Frankie Midnight (yes, that's his real name) Miami native, recording artist and actor Frankie Midnight, 32, aims to be a leading man in life as well as on stage and the silver screen.
Married to Symone Titania, 31, a documentary photographer, choreographer, filmmaker and poet, the two “artists supporting artists” are an artistic tour-de-force.
Born in Carol City, Midnight made his first stage appearance when he was 10 years old as Travis in Miami Dade College’s production of "A Raisin in the Sun."
At age 13, he bought his first guitar with money he made by selling candy in middle school and taught himself how to play and began writing and recording original songs.
His 2018 album, "Love Stories" featured eleven original songs which he wrote, composed, recorded and played all the instruments. His follow-up album, “Look Up!! Songs From Frankie Midnight,” under his publishing company, “Frankie Midnight LLC” deals with themes of self- awareness, optimism, self-doubt, spirituality and personal growth.
This year, Midnight released an EP titled, “Fervent,” with six original songs. The EP has garnered 1.8K views on YouTube and features Midnight’s signature chill vibe.
“Music helped me overcome obstacles in my life,” says Midnight, who comes from a musical family. His father was a professional rap artist and his mother was a producer.
Although a Millennial by birth, Midnight was influenced by Motown, Prince, Tupac Shakur, David Bowie, The Beatles and Michael Jackson (“I was a fanatic”). As a child, he remembers listening to the Motown Christmas CD at his grandmother’s house.
But it was a blonde-haired grunge rocker from Seattle named Kurt Cobain who inspired Midnight to first pick up the guitar after seeing Cobain and his band, Nirvana, on television.
“The moment I saw Kurt Cobain on TV playing guitar, I knew I wanted to do the same thing,” he remembers.
Midnight met Titania when she was producing a dance battle at Miami-Dade College's Kendall Campus ten years ago and Midnight applied to be one of the contestants.
The couple have been married for two years.
"Hey Y'all" by Symone Titania.
Midnight heeded his father’s advice to wait for the right woman to find him and he says, “She found me.”
Titania, founder of the non-profit arts organization, Context of a Generation (COAG), uses her camera to document overlooked stories and the lived African American experience, mostly in and around her hometown of Goulds.
She admires the work of filmmaker Spike Lee and photographer Gordon Parks, also a composer, author, poet and film director, who documented issues of civil rights and the African American community during the 1940s.
Her first photo series in 2017, “The Unvoiced Community: BBQ Men & Women of Goulds,” showcased a behind the scenes glimpse of local BBQ entrepreneurs, a project in which Titania says she found her peace during a time of turmoil in the city.
“The Other Side of the Tracks: Overtown & Wynwood” - a series of black and white photographs - won the Ellies Creator Award at Oolite Arts in 2019.
Frankie Midnight and Symone Titania are an artistic tour de force.
“Martin’s Footprints – Marches in Coconut Grove and Goulds” documenting two protests in Miami - one in Coconut Grove and one in Goulds - following the murder of George Floyd in 2021 won the Knights Art Challenge from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Her poetry, performance and black and white live-action photography piece titled “Home,” commissioned by The Miami Light Project in 2022 explores the emotional journey of being at home and in seclusion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m inspired by the legacy of my family and by the community where I grew up,” Titania says. “I want to record and tell the unheard and lesser-known stories of my home and my people.”
In 2021 Titania was a recipient of the Miami Foundation Racial Equity Fund Artist Grant and most recently her photographs were part of a group exhibit entitled, “As We Move Forward,” on display at the Augusta Savage Gallery in Amherst, MA.
The exhibit will move to The North Dade Regional Library at the end of June and later to the Frost Museum to coincide with Art Basel and the other art fairs in December.
Symone Titania
Titania is nothing if not tenacious. With a motto of “be bold and shine bright,” she embodies her philosophy with her signature Afro and large gold hoops.
She credits her parents as role models and is grateful for their motivation and support.
“Whatever I wanted to do they thoroughly supported me,” she says. “Whether it was dance, poetry or photography, they were behind me 100 percent. They always made sure I had the opportunities to pursue my creative interests.””
With similar artistic sensibilities, the she and Midnight recently formed a production company, “Midnight Monochrome Pictures.”
Their first feature length film, “Mumble: Fate of a Lost Icon,” a mockumentary à la “This is Spinal Tap,” shot in five days entirely in black and white at a cost of $200, screened at the Miami International Film Festival in April.
“We’re proud of our ability to be resourceful, efficient and get things done,” says Midnight, who is inspired by the black and white films of the 1930s as well as Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone."
The two hope to achieve a renaissance in black and white filmmaking.
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With similar artistic sensibilities, the couple recently formed a production company, “Midnight Monochrome Pictures.”
With a deep belief in God and Christianity, Midnight says he puts his faith in God to move forward.
An unintended benefit from the endeavor he says, was giving a purpose and direction to the people who worked on and in the film.
“We have to be responsible for the gifts we have and keep others in mind,” Midnight says, aspiring to make 10 feature length films over the next five years.
“We both go after what we want and will achieve our goals one way or another,” says Titania, a sentiment that is echoed by Midnight.
“Don't let anything limit you,” he says. “If I waited for a camera or for the funding to make “Mumble,” it would not have made it into MIFF. There were so many resources we lacked, but I didn't let anything stand in my way.”
And while Midnight and Titania are keeping their eyes on the prize, we’re keeping our eyes on them – stay tuned; there’s more to come.
WHAT: Frankie Midnight and Symone Titania
WEBSITES: Frankie Midnight and symonetitania.com
CHECK OUT: FERVENT (EP) - Frankie Midnight
