Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco is Coming to Rockville

Inauguration Day poet Richard Blanco will read his work at a Rockville event next month, county officials announced Thursday.

The Friends of the Library, Montgomery County and the Latino Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender History Project are hosting Blanco at Rockville Memorial Library on May 17.

Blanco performed “One Day” at the second inauguration of President Barack Obama in January. He is the youngest and first openly gay Latino to read a poem at a U.S. presidential inauguration.

Montgomery County Council President Nancy Navarro (D-Dist. 4) is the event’s honorary chairwoman of the event.

Somerset Mayor Jeffrey Z. Slavin is the event chairman.

A civil engineer by trade, Blanco has written three books. A fourth book—a bilingual triptych of poems submitted for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration—will be released on May 6.

When Blanco was nearly 2 months old, his family emigrated from Cuba to Spain, moved to New York City, and eventually settled in Florida where Blanco was raised and educated.  

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If you go …

WHAT: A program of readings from Richard Blanco, Inauguration Day poet
WHEN: 7:30 p.m.  Friday, May 17
WHERE: Rockville Memorial Library, 21 Maryland Ave.  
COST: $30 for an individual and $50 for a couple
MORE: Call 240-777-0020 or visit www.folmc.org. For more information about the Latino Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender History Project, visit www.latinoglbthistory.org.