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Poet Blanco set to speak at DePauw for Jan. 18, 20 events
Richard Blanco, a noted American poet, author and civil engineer who read one of his works at President Barack Obama's second inauguration, will present readings as part of DePauw University's commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Day.
The event will take place Monday, Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Thompson Recital Hall, located within DePauw's Green Center for the Performing Arts.
Blanco will offer a multi-media presentation of his work to remember and celebrate Dr. King's legacy. Blanco is at DePauw this month, serving as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and is contributing to the Winter Term class "Poetry and the Public Sphere," taught by Kate Berry and Joe Heithaus.
On Wednesday, Jan. 20, Blanco will join Marjory Wentworth, poet laureate for the state of South Carolina, for a 7:30 p.m. program in the auditorium of DePauw's Richard E. Peeler Art Center. The two will present readings and engage in a discussion about the role of poetry in the public sphere. Wentworth is also contributing to the aforementioned Winter Term class.
Blanco wrote "One Today" which he read at President Obama's inauguration ceremony on Jan. 21, 2013
Wentworth was named by Gov. Mark Sanford as the sixth South Carolina Poet Laureate in 2003, a title she still holds. Nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize, her published collections include "Nightjars," "The Endless Repetition of an Ordinary Miracle" and "Despite Gravity."
Born to a family of Cuban exiles in Madrid, Blanco moved to New York City only 45 days into his life. Only a few weeks old, Blanco already belonged to three countries, a foreshadowing of the concerns of place and belonging that would shape his life and work.
Raised in Miami in a community of Cuban exiles, Blanco was possessed by a strong creative spirit from a young age and also excelled in math and the sciences.
His parents encouraged him to study engineering, believing it would ensure a more stable and rewarding career for him. He took their advice, earning a degree from Florida International University in 1991, and began working as a consulting civil engineer in Miami.
In his mid-20s he was compelled to express his creative side through writing, prompted by questions of cultural identity and his personal history. He returned to Florida International University, where he was mentored by poet Campbell McGrath and earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing in 1997.
Blanco's first book of poetry, "City of a Hundred Fires," was published in 1998 and won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press. He took a hiatus from his engineering career and accepted a position at Central Connecticut State University as a professor of creative writing.
He traveled the world and also taught at Georgetown and American universities, The Writers Center, and at the Arlington Country Detention Facility. Poems relating to his journeys through Spain, Italy, France, Guatemala, Brazil, Cuba and New England comprised his second book, "Directions to The Beach of the Dead" (2005), which received the Beyond Margins Award from the PEN American Center for its explorations of the ideal of home and connections sought through place, culture, family and love.
In 2004, Blanco returned to Miami and resumed his engineering career while writing at night. He completed an electronic chapbook of poems, "Place of Mind." A move to Maine brought "Looking for The Gulf Motel." Published in 2012, it related the author's complex navigation through his cultural, sexual and artistic identities.
After the re-election of President Obama, Blanco was chosen to serve as the fifth inaugural poet of the United States, following in the footsteps of such great writers as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou.
Blanco wrote "One Today," an original poem for the occasion, which he read at Obama's inauguration ceremony. That day confirmed him as a historical figure: The first Latino, immigrant and gay writer bestowed with such an honor, as well as the youngest ever, at 44.