Presidential poet pays remote visit
Richard Blanco told Ransom Everglades students that appearing at the presidential inauguration in 2013 to recite his poem “One Today” transformed his life. The United States’ fifth inaugural poet – following greats including Maya Angelou and Robert Frost – Blanco spent a virtual day at Ransom Everglades on December 8. He taught two poetry seminars, addressed students at an all-school assembly and talked shop with faculty members after school.
At the remote all-school assembly, he shared details of his working-class, immigrant background, and discussed how writing poetry helped him understand his place in the American narrative. He read several poems from his recent collection How to Love a Country.
“Serving as inaugural poet,” Blanco said, “changed every part of my life.”
Blanco currently serves as the first Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and an associate professor at Florida International University, his alma mater. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami, Blanco attended Christopher Columbus High before earning a civil engineering degree at FIU.
Head of School Penny Townsend warmly welcomed Blanco, who described himself as a B student in English who didn’t begin writing poetry until age 27. He worked for several years as an engineer before returning to FIU to earn an MFA in creative writing. His first book, City of a Hundred Fires, received national acclaim and allowed him to pursue poetry full time.
During his meetings with students, Blanco read and discussed three poems he composed per White House request, and examined various other poetic works. He connected with James McCrink’s creative writing class and offered a master class to interested students assembled by faculty member Matthew Helmers. He also met with RE English faculty to exchange ideas, insisting on a video call that he wasn’t “the only authority in the room.”
A Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Blanco has received numerous honorary doctorates and won a host of poetry prizes and awards. He has taught at Georgetown University, American University and Wesleyan University.
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Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.