The Poetry Coalition, a group of 25 different national poetry organizations dedicated to promoting the value of poetry, launched their third annual program initiative this month called, “What Is It, Then, Between Us?: Poetry & Democracy.”
As part of the month-long program, the Academy of American Poets in New York City chose poets Pádraig Ó Tuama, Richard Blanco, Tom Sleigh, Brenda Hillman, and Solmaz Sharif to curate a series of poems every Saturday in March that explore the many facets of the First Amendment.
Blanco focused on freedom of speech. He told Boston Public Radio on Wednesday that he thought “about those people who can’t speak, or those people whose freedom of speech has been compromised in some ways, or silenced in some way.”
Blanco joined BPR to preview some of the poems he chose, which will go online on Saturday, March 9 through the poem-a-day series from the Academy of American Poets. Readers can sign up to receive these and other poems in their inbox throughout the month.
Richard Blanco is the fifth presidential inaugural poet in U.S. history. His new book, "How to Love a Country: Poems," deals with various socio-political issues that shadow America.
