By Julia Beauregard
Hometown Weekly Editor
On Thursday, February 22, the Westwood Public Library (WPL) hosted acclaimed Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco in the culminating event of the Westwood Children’s Poetry Festival. Children in grades 2-5 and their caregivers were invited to this event, and over 50 people attended to hear the acclaimed poet speak and recite his poetry.
Lynne Viti, Westwood’s Poet Laureate and the brain behind the Westwood Children’s Poetry Festival, proudly introduced Blanco to the crowd. Viti explained that Blanco is an American poet, public speaker, author, and civil engineer. He holds the distinction of being the fifth poet to read at a United States presidential inauguration. He presented the poem "One Today" during Barack Obama’s second inauguration, marking several historic firsts: he was the first immigrant, the first Latino, and the first openly gay person to serve as a U.S. inaugural poet. Additionally, at the time of his appointment, he was the youngest person to hold this prestigious role.
To the delight of the attendees, Blanco recited “One Today,” after sharing the story of when he received the call from the White House, as well as explaining what writing this poem meant to him: “The hardest part of writing this poem was not the deadline… it was asking a very important question of myself as a gay, immigrant Latino kid, ‘Does this country love me?’… and the writing of this poem was the answer to this question, which was yes,” Blanco shared.
The poet went onto share his story of how he became a poet during his time as a civil engineer, due to the amount of writing that he had to partake in through his work, touching upon the importance of being a good writer. This desire to be a better writer, coupled with his love to learn and be creative, is what ignited his interest in poetry. Blanco went onto take poetry classes at a local community college in order to fully immerse himself in the art of writing poetry and to find his voice as a poet.
His passion for poetry was continuously fueled by his desire to understand himself, as he stated “the arts and humanities really help us understand who we are… understanding yourself makes a better you.” His poems explore the themes of identity, belonging, and home, which can be seen displayed in “One Today.”
Blanco explained that writing poetry has become therapeutic to him, as it helps him identify, explore, and understand his emotions: “When I begin a poem, I have an overwhelming emotion of some kind… the poem is a way of investigating that.” He went on to share how he loved the thrill of the creative process, which keeps his love of poetry kindled: “to be an artist is to be a part of something that doesn’t exist yet, which is terrifying but also exciting.”
The poet ended the talk with a Q&A session and a book signing, where all attendees were able to chat with Blanco one on one. To learn more about Richard Blanco or to purchase a copy of “One Today” or his other works, please visit richard-blanco.com.
This event was jointly funded by the Westwood Public Library and a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, written by Westwood Poet Laureate Lynne Viti and Youth Poet Laureate Lucie Sechler as part of their mission to bring poetry to elementary school-aged students.
