Broad Stage Presents Red Hen Press Poetry Hour 4/8

The Broad Stage presents the Red Hen Press Poetry Hour, a recurring digital program, the first for both organizations, via The Broad Stage's Facebook Live. The Saturday, April 11 program at 8:00 p.m. features Richard Blanco, selected by President Barack Obama as the fifth presidential inaugural poet, as well as Francisco Aragón, former City Poet Laureate of West Hollywood Kim Dower, Blas Falconer, and Vandana Khanna reading selections live, with featured pre-recorded videos by Tess Taylor and Gaylord Brewer.

Red Hen Press Poetry Hour is currently hosted by author Sandra Tsing Loh.

As an inaugural poet, Blanco is the youngest and the first Latino, immigrant, and gay person to serve in such a role. Born to Cuban exile parents, the negotiation of cultural identity characterizes his four collections of poetry: How To Love a Country, City of a Hundred Fires, which received the Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize; Directions to The Beach of the Dead, recipient of the Beyond Margins Award from the PEN American Center; and Looking for The Gulf Motel, recipient of the Paterson Poetry Prize and the Thom Gunn Award. He has also authored the memoirs For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet's Journey and The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood, winner of a Lambda Literary Award.

His inaugural poem "One Today" was published as a children's book, in collaboration with illustrator Dav Pilkey. Blanco has written occasional poems for the re-opening of the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, Freedom to Marry, the Tech Awards of Silicon Valley, and the Boston Strong benefit concert following the Boston Marathon bombings. He is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.

Red Hen Press Poetry Hour is part of The Broad Stage at Home, a destination offering new, livestreamed content from artistic partners and archival concert footage. Episodes later available on The Broad Stage Facebook and YouTube pages and redhen.org

Providing context for the Poetry Hour, Dr. Kate Gale, Co-Founder and Managing Editor of Red Hen Press, said, "Poetry allows us to breathe, and we need a moment to breathe more than ever right now. We're trapped in an endless news cycle in our houses working while our children tear down the walls. Poetry allows us to pause and reflect on the immensity of life. Poetry will carry us through this and give us moments when we're focused on something other than this news, this thing we're all in together."

Rob Bailis, Artistic and Executive Director of The Broad Stage, said, "Poetry is where I live, what I read before I go to bed at night. Poetry is simultaneously fiction and nonfiction-and can inhabit that space where there are as many gray areas as there are people alive."

"While we are all isolated, how can we stay in communication and not lose contextual conversations? Because in the absence of those, we are lost. This feels like a time when artistic exploration-finding a truth and being authentic to this moment as much as we can-would be incredibly useful for all. I think people are looking for content that isn't slickly produced entertainment."

The Broad Stage at Home also offers The Broad Stage Music Mornings; the next episode Broadcast Live on Sunday, April 12 at 11:00am features The Reverend Shawn Amos, songwriter, blues singer, and curator of The Broad Stage blackbox series.

Blank Verse Films provide some pre-recorded readings. For more information, please visit https://www.filmindependent.org/programs/fiscal-sponsorship/blank-verse-films/

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