~Posted by Jen B.
We are delighted to welcome inaugural poet, Richard Blanco, for Seattle Reads 2014, beginning on Saturday, April 26! The featured work this year, For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey, traces Blanco’s experience after receiving the White House committee invitation to submit three poems from which the inaugural poem would be chosen. He relates his experiences as a Latino immigrant and openly gay man and how he discovered a new understanding of what it means to be an American. Blanco’s inaugural poem, “One Today,” presented at the second inauguration of President Obama, clearly reflects his belief in the uniting power of poetry and in the qualities Americans share that make this country great. Blanco is the youngest, first Latino, first immigrant and the first openly gay writer to present an inaugural poem.
Library book groups all over the City are discussing Blanco’s book and everyone is welcome to participate in these discussions and to meet the author at the events listed on the Library website here. Copies of For All of Us, One Today are available at all Library locations for informal borrowing. A program and reading group guide is available, while supplies last, and is also posted on the Library website.
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