The Red Hen Press Poetry Hour produced by Pasadena’s literary publishing house in Northwest Pasadena will take The Broad Stage on Facebook Live on Saturday, April 11, in an epic show featuring Richard Blanco, who was selected by President Barack Obama as the fifth inaugural poet, as well as live readings by Kim Dower, Francisco Aragón, Blas Falconer, and Vandana Khanna.
The show will also feature videos by Tess Taylor and Gaylord Brewer, and will be hosted by the amazing Sandra Tsing Loh. The show, with participants performing from their living rooms and kitchens all over the country, begins at 8 p.m.
Recorded episodes will later be available on The Broad Stage’s Facebook and YouTube pages, as well as on www.redhen.org.
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.
“Poetry allows us to breathe, and we need a moment to breathe more than ever right now,” Dr. Kate Gale, Co-Founder and Managing Editor of Red Hen Press, said as she provides context for The Poetry Hour. “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.”
“Poetry is where I live, what I read before I go to bed at night,” Rob Bailis, Artistic and Executive Director of The Broad Stage, said. “Poetry is simultaneously fiction and nonfiction – and can inhabit that space where there are as many gray areas as there are people alive.”
The Broad Stage also offers The Broad Stage Music Mornings, which will broadcast next on Sunday, April 12 at 11 a.m. The show will feature the Rev. Shawn Amos, songwriter, blues singer, and curator of The Broad Stage blackbox series.
To follow The Broad Stage, visit www.facebook.com/thebroadstage.
