Originally published on the Illinois News Bureau website.  

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Poet Richard Blanco – the fifth and youngest inaugural poet and the first Latino, immigrant and gay person to serve in that role – will visit the University of Illinois for a reading and book signing April 7.

Blanco read his poem “One Today” at President Obama’s second inauguration. He was born in Spain to Cuban-exiled parents and raised in Miami, and one of the themes of Blanco’s work is a search for identity. He describes himself on his website as “the Cuban Blanco or the American Blanco, the homebody or the world traveler, the scared boy or the openly gay man, the engineer or the inaugural poet.”

His visit is part of the spring events of the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities. Space and place are unofficial themes for the program’s spring speaker series, making Blanco’s writings on home and belonging a good fit, said Nancy Castro, the associate director of the IPRH.

Read the full article at the Illinois News Bureau website.