Ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, poet Richard Blanco shared some of his favorite works engaging with Dr. King’s life and legacy.
Blanco read his poem “St. Louis: Prayer Before Dawn,” which discusses the social, political and economic disparities between two St. Louis neighborhoods, one predominantly white, and one predominantly black.
The poem includes references to prayers and Biblical passages, such as the Peace Prayer of St. Francis and Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, which Blanco said are a nod to King’s role as a pastor and activist. read more…
There’s more to holiday poetry than just “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” says poet Richard Blanco.
For that reason, in the latest edition of his regular poetry segment on Boston Public Radio, Blanco chose a few of his favorite holiday poems, but “not the ‘Christmas sweater’ version of poetry — something to make us reflect,” he said. read more…
Richard Blanco joined Boston Public Radio to share his favorite modern takes on classic poetry forms.
Blanco specifically chose to explore a form called the “pantoum” poem, which originated from Malaysia in the 1400s. Each consists of four-line stanzas where lines are methodically repeated. The effect is rhythmic and melodic, with the repeated lines taking on new meanings with each use.
“It’s kind of like a basketweave effect,” Blanco explained. read more…
In these poems, Blanco explained, television stands in as a way of engaging with larger themes like identity, companionship, and connecting with others.
“It’s not about TV,” he said. “It’s TV as an occasion to talk about something else.”
In his own piece “Afternoons as Endora,” for example, Blanco recalls seeing television — specifically, the outlandish and self-assured witch Endora from “Bewitched” — as a companion in a lonely childhood growing up gay in a hyper-masculine culture. read more…
For our bi-monthly segment of The Village Voice with Richard Blanco, we discuss poetry and how it can help us to better understand our lives and times — as we always do — this time ushering in National Hispanic Heritage Month which begins on Sept. 15.
This episode aired on Boston Public Radio on September 10, 2018.
In the latest edition of “Village Voice,” Boston Public Radio’s recurring conversation about how poetry can help us understand the news of the day, poet Richard Blanco shared his favorite poems about traveling — and what going away can teach us about what it means to be home.
“Nothing really evokes questions of home like traveling, because we’re always comparing where we are to where we travel to, to what home is and where we come from,” Blanco explained.
Blanco shared poems about LGBTQ relationships, including his own poem “Killing Mark.” He said the poem “really, in a way, speaks to [the fact] that love is love, and marriage is marriage, and straight folks don’t have the corner on dysfunctional relationships.”
Blanco also shared a poem by Adrienne Rich, one of America’s most prominent lesbian poets. The poem doesn’t address LGBTQ themes specifically, but sees the world with a sensitivity that Blanco said is a hallmark of many LGBTQ writers.
This episode of Village Voice aired on Boston Public Radio on June 20, 2018.
