ARTSPEAK RADIO + Richard Blanco, Polly Alice McCann, & Fally Afani

‪Wednesday, April 8, 2020, noon -1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org‬ ‪Co-producer/host Mark Manning talks with Richard Blanco the 5th poet to read at a United States presidential inauguration and American poet, Flying Ketchup founder/poet Polly Alice McCann, and award-winning journalist Fally Afani. Richard Blanco’s mother, seven months pregnant, and the rest of the family arrived as exiles from Cuba to Madrid where he was born on February 15th, 1968. Forty-five days later, the family immigrated once more to New York City. Only a few weeks old, Blanco already belonged to three countries, a foreshadowing of the concerns of place and belonging that would shape his life and work. Eventually, the family settled in Miami, where he was raised and educated. Growing up among close-knit Cuban exiles instilled in him a strong sense of community, dignity, and identity that he’d carry into his adult life as a writer. Though possessed by a strong creative spirit since childhood, Blanco also excelled in math and the sciences. As such, his parents encouraged him to study engineering, believing it would ensure a more stable and rewarding career for him. He took their advice, earning a degree from Florida…