1. Richard Blanco was born on February 15,1968 and is an American poet, public speaker, author, playwright, and civil engineer.
32 Facts About Richard Blanco
1. 2.
Richard Blanco is the fifth poet to read at a United States presidential inauguration, having read the poem "One Today" for Barack Obama's second inauguration.
3.
Richard Blanco is the first immigrant, the first Latino, the first openly gay person and at the time the youngest person to be the US inaugural poet.
4.
In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
5.
Richard Blanco's books include Homeland of My Body: New and Selected Poems, How to Love a Country; City of a Hundred Fires, which received the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press; Directions to The Beach of the Dead, recipient of the Beyond Margins Award from the PEN American Center; and Looking for The Gulf Motel, recipient of the Paterson Poetry Prize and the Thom Gunn Award.
6.
Richard Blanco has authored the memoirs For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey and The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood, winner of the Lambda Literary Prize.
7.
Richard Blanco partnered with photographer Jacob Hessler on the limited edition fine press poetry book Boundaries, with artist John Bailey on series of Ekphrastic paintings titled a Place of Mind, and with Ramiro A Fernandez on the photography book Cuba Then Archived September 18,2021, at the Wayback Machine.
8.
Richard Blanco has been a professor, having taught at Georgetown University, American University, Central Connecticut State University, Wesleyan University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Colby College, Carlow University, and currently at Florida International University.
9.
Richard Blanco serves as the first Education Ambassador for the Academy of American Poets.
10.
Richard Blanco's mother, seven months pregnant, and the rest of the family arrived as exiles from Cuba to Madrid where he was born on February 15,1968.
11.
Richard Blanco's parents encouraged him to study engineering, believing that it could provide him a more stable future.
12.
Richard Blanco conceded to their wishes and graduated from Florida International University in 1991 with a degree in civil engineering.
13.
Richard Blanco started his career in Miami while writing poetry on the side.
14.
Between 1999 and 2001, Richard Blanco traveled extensively through Spain, Italy, France, Guatemala, Brazil, Cuba, and New England.
15.
Richard Blanco was the first immigrant, first Latino, and first gay person to be the inaugural poet.
16.
Richard Blanco was asked to compose three poems from which inauguration officials selected the one he would read.
17.
Richard Blanco did so with the publication of For All of Us, One Today on November 19,2013.
18.
In May 2013, for victims and survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing Richard Blanco wrote and performed a poem for the Boston Strong Benefit Concert at TD Garden and Fenway Park.
19.
On November 22,2013, Blanco participated in the official Tribute 50th ceremony for President John F Kennedy.
20.
In 2016 Richard Blanco gave National Archives keynote lecture on the National Conversation on LGBTQ Human and Civil Rights.
21.
Richard Blanco collaborated with author and artist Nikki Moustaki to create a video for his poem "Election Year" that was published in the Boston Globe two days before the 2016 election of President Donald Trump.
22.
Since 2017, Richard Blanco has been contributor and host of the "Village Voice" radio program on WGBH.
23.
Richard Blanco has collaborated with Bacardi Havana Club on the launch of their heritage campaign "Don't Tell Us We're Not Cuban", Samuel Adams Brewery on "Love Conquers All, Pride" and Philadelphia Boys Choir on lyrics for Gershwin's re-imagined Cuban Overture.
24.
Richard Blanco was honored that his poem "One Today" was projected on the big screen at the U2 Joshua Tree tour.
25.
Richard Blanco is currently on the faculty of Florida International University, his alma mater for both Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.
26.
Richard Blanco was appointed as a founding member of President Obama Foundation Advisory Council and has lectured at the US National Archives Poetry of LGBTQ history for Human and Civil Rights.
27.
Richard Blanco is a member of the prestigious Macondo Writers Workshop, the workshop founded by Sandra Cisneros.
28.
Recently Richard Blanco was elected as Vice Chair of Board of Trustees at Colby College.
29.
Since 2013, Richard Blanco has frequented many events in various educational institutions.
30.
Richard Blanco's poetry has appeared in The Nation, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, USA Today, Ploughshares, The New Republic, Indiana Review, New York Times Magazine, Michigan Quarterly Review, New England Review, VOX, Americas Review and TriQuarterly Review.
31.
Richard Blanco has published articles and essays in The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, Indiana Review and several anthologies, including Norton Anthology of Latino Literature and Great American Prose Poems.
32.
Richard Blanco is part of the online Letras Latinas Oral History Project archives.