{"id":15868,"date":"2020-06-25T19:10:57","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T19:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/?p=15868"},"modified":"2020-07-24T19:13:32","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T19:13:32","slug":"richard-blanco-reflects-on-what-it-means-to-belong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/2020\/06\/25\/richard-blanco-reflects-on-what-it-means-to-belong\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Blanco reflects on what it means to belong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2013By Emily Castellanos for FIU News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Associate professor of English and FIU alumnus\u00a0Richard Blanco<\/a>\u00a0was in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma at an art camp for high schoolers when he heard about the Pulse nightclub shooting.<\/p>\n

Although he was thousands of miles away, the news hit close to home. The nation\u2019s first openly gay inaugural poet, Blanco felt an unshakeable urgency to write \u2014 to process everything he was feeling as someone who had spent time in clubs, like Pulse, where many in the LGBT community go to feel safe and supported.<\/p>\n

\u201cGay clubs really are\u00a0home<\/em>. It\u2019s where you first learn to be socialized as LGBTQ people,\u201d Blanco said. \u201cAnd to have that home desecrated in such a way\u2026 It really was a double tragedy for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within 24 hours of hearing about the tragedy, Blanco finished \u201cOne Pulse \u2013 One Poem\u201d to honor the 49 victims.<\/p>\n

This poem opened \u201cBelonging: Reflections on Identity, Exile and Home,\u201d a discussion with Blanco, which was organized in honor of LGBTQ+ Pride Month by\u00a0FIU\u2019s Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Separated into three acts: sexuality, language and humanities as practice, Blanco recited some of his poems related to the idea of \u201cbelonging.\u201d He also spoke about being a part of the LGBTQ+ community, his Cuban roots and childhood, as well as finding his passion as a writer and poet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis intersectionality of all kinds of narratives that haven\u2019t been able to have a dialog in a more unified voice are joining force,\u201d Blanco said.<\/p>\n

Narratives such as social justice, the Black Lives Matter and Black Trans Lives Matter movements and LGBTQ+ rights are a few examples that he brought up, which are revisited in conversations today in America and across the globe.<\/p>\n

During the Q&A, a viewer asked, \u201cWhat does it mean to belong? What is belonging to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I say to my students: Good art answers questions. Great art asks them. I don\u2019t think I have an answer, I just have more and more questions,\u201d Blanco said. \u201cBelonging is multi-complex, everchanging and a moving thing. It\u2019s precisely because of that it\u2019s the subject of art, because there is no final answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017, Blanco took a position as a faculty member at the\u00a0College of Arts, Sciences & Education<\/a>. He will also become the first affiliated faculty member in\u00a0FIU\u2019s Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Angela Nicoletti contributed to this story.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n