RICHARD BLANCO: President Obama’s 2013 Inaugural Poet
AlYoung.org congratulates Richard Blanco: President Obama’s 2013 Inaugural Poet
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Craig Dilger for The New York Times
Poet’s Kinship with the President
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
© 2013 The New York Times
WASHINGTON — From the moment Barack Obama burst onto the political scene, the poet Richard Blanco, a son of Cuban exiles, says he felt “a spiritual connection” with the man who would become the nation’s 44th president.
Like Mr. Obama, who chronicled his multicultural upbringing in a best-selling autobiography, Dreams From My Father, Mr. Blanco has been on a quest for personal identity through the written word. He said his affinity for Mr. Obama springs from his own feeling of straddling different worlds; he is Latino and gay (and worked as a civil engineer while pursuing poetry). His poems are laden with longing for the sights and smells of the land his parents left behind ….
For the full story, go to the New York Times original
“‘One Today‘ has some fine lines, but writing good poetry for a grand national celebration is an impossible feat”
— U.K. Guardian | 22 January 2013
Richard Blanco reads ‘One Today,’ his 69-line inaugural poem
 _______________________________________________
Watch and listen to Richard Blanco read and speak about his poetry
Nico Tucci/Courtesy of Richard Blanco
Poems by Richard Blanco
Visit Richard Blanco’s Website
_______________________________________________
