Poet of the People
Explicit content warning
06/11/24 • 45 min
In this episode, AGG and Sergio sit down with Richard Blanco to discuss a range of topics including his decision to finally dedicate a book to his husband, his identity as a sensory poet, and his ongoing quest to find home. They also delve into his complex relationship with his abuela, including her attempts to bribe him into marrying a woman, and the intricate family dynamics with gender and gender roles. Richard shares his journey of being open and vulnerable, letting go of past burdens, his linguistic power over his parents, having the best queer experience as a youth in Miami, his visits to Cuba, and his strong dislike of toes.
About the Author: @poetrichardblanco
Richard Blanco’s work has been praised by Ada Limón, Patricia Smith, Eileen Myles, and Elizabeth Alexander, among many others; his poems have appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, and dozens of other publications. He is the recent recipient of the National Humanities Medal and was selected by Barack Obama as the fifth presidential inaugural poet in US history.
About the Book: Homeland of My Body
In this collection of over one hundred poems, Richard Blanco has carefully culled work from his previous book to represent the evolution of a writer grappling with his identity, working to find and define “home,” and bookended them with new poems that address those issues from a fresh, more mature perspective, allowing him to approach surrendering the pain and urgency of his past explorations. Pausing at this pivotal moment in mid-career, Blanco reexamines his lifelong quest to find his proverbial home and all that it encompasses: love, family, identity, and, ultimately, art itself. In the closing section of the volume, he has come to understand and internalize the idea that “home” is not one place, not one thing, and lives both inside him and inside his art.
Author Recommended Playlist:
James Taylor - Carolina In My Mind
Jackson Brown - The Pretender
Dua Lipa - Cold Heart
Connect with Los Bookis!
@Los.Bookis.Podcast
@adriangaston.garcia
@que_viva_sergio_lopez
In this episode, AGG and Sergio sit down with Richard Blanco to discuss a range of topics including his decision to finally dedicate a book to his husband, his identity as a sensory poet, and his ongoing quest to find home. They also delve into his complex relationship with his abuela, including her attempts to bribe him into marrying a woman, and the intricate family dynamics with gender and gender roles. Richard shares his journey of being open and vulnerable, letting go of past burdens, his linguistic power over his parents, having the best queer experience as a youth in Miami, his visits to Cuba, and his strong dislike of toes.
About the Author: @poetrichardblanco
Richard Blanco’s work has been praised by Ada Limón, Patricia Smith, Eileen Myles, and Elizabeth Alexander, among many others; his poems have appeared in the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, and dozens of other publications. He is the recent recipient of the National Humanities Medal and was selected by Barack Obama as the fifth presidential inaugural poet in US history.
About the Book: Homeland of My Body
In this collection of over one hundred poems, Richard Blanco has carefully culled work from his previous book to represent the evolution of a writer grappling with his identity, working to find and define “home,” and bookended them with new poems that address those issues from a fresh, more mature perspective, allowing him to approach surrendering the pain and urgency of his past explorations. Pausing at this pivotal moment in mid-career, Blanco reexamines his lifelong quest to find his proverbial home and all that it encompasses: love, family, identity, and, ultimately, art itself. In the closing section of the volume, he has come to understand and internalize the idea that “home” is not one place, not one thing, and lives both inside him and inside his art.
Author Recommended Playlist:
James Taylor - Carolina In My Mind
Jackson Brown - The Pretender
Dua Lipa - Cold Heart
Connect with Los Bookis!
@Los.Bookis.Podcast
@adriangaston.garcia
@que_viva_sergio_lopez
Previous Episode
The Force is Strong with Jessica Parra
In this episode, AGG and Sergio gab with the fabulous Jessica Parra about our shared love for JLo, dropping a sizzling hot take (Wedding Planner v. Selena), navigating life as a Disney adult, unraveling the secrets of Tarot cards, and the delightful usage of nicknames. We dive into how she deals with grief, her choice to embrace the term “Latine,” in her writing, her creative spin on quinceañeras. Plus, we gush over her love for the TV show “Vida,” and her deep-seated passion for all things Star Wars.
About the Author: @JessicaTParra
As a lawyer and daughter of Guatemalan and Cuban bakers, Jessica Parra never objects to an extra slice of cake. She’s a Los Angeles native who loves to write about Latinas with big hair (and even bigger dreams), complicated families, and the healing magic of acceptance. She’s the author of Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success, the forthcoming The Quince Project (both published with Wednesday Books), as well as many unfinished first drafts about cats living their best lives—all nine of them. When she isn’t drafting books you can find her sipping kombucha, cuddling with her kitties, or co-piloting the Millennium Falcon at Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge.
About the Book: The Quince Project
The Wedding Planner gets a YA makeover in this delightful and heartfelt novel from the author of Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success.
Castillo Torres, Student Body Association event chair and serial planner, could use a fairy godmother. After a disastrous mishap at her sister's quinceañera and her mother's unexpected passing, all of Cas's plans are crumbling. So when a local lifestyle-guru-slash-party-planner opens up applications for the internship of her dreams, Cas sees it as the perfect opportunity to learn every trick in the book so that things never go wrong again.
The only catch is that she needs more party planning experience before she can apply. When she books a quinceañera for a teen Disneyland vlogger, Cas thinks her plan is taking off...until she discovers that the party is just a publicity stunt and she catches feelings for the chambelán. It's clear that her agenda is about to go way off-script, and that real life is a bit more complicated than a fairy tale.
But maybe Happily Ever Afters aren't just for the movies and a little spontaneity is just what she needs. Can Cas go from planner to participant in her own life? Or will this would-be princess turn into a pumpkin at the end of the ball?
Author Recommended Playlist:
Waiting for Tonight - Jennifer Lopez
The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme) - John Williams
Tiempo de Vals - Chayanne
Connect with Los Bookis!
@Los.Bookis.Podcast
@adriangaston.garcia
@que_viva_sergio_lopez
Next Episode
He Tried His Best
In this episode, AGG and Sergio are live in the studio with the talented Aaron H. Aceves! We dive into his love for voice notes, how his book is a grower, and the sheer joy he feels hearing from fellow queer Latines, Palestinians and teenagers. We also chat about feeling isolated as a child, growing up in the vibrant East L.A., his taste in guys, and he drops a whopper of a hot take that you won’t want to miss!
About the Author: @aaronaceves
Aaron H. Aceves is a bisexual, Mexican-American writer born and raised in East L.A. He graduated from Harvard College and received his MFA from Columbia University. His fiction has appeared in Epiphany, The Florida Review, and Passages North, among other places. He currently lives in Texas, where he serves as an Early Career Provost Fellow at UT Austin, and his debut novel, This Is Why They Hate Us, was released by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. It received multiple starred reviews and was named a Best Young Adult Book of 2022 by Kirkus Reviews.
About the Book: This is Why They Hate Us
Enrique “Quique” Luna has one goal this summer—get over his crush on Saleem Kanazi by pursuing his other romantic prospects. Never mind that he’s only out to his best friend, Fabiola. Never mind that he has absolutely zero game. And definitely forget the fact that good and kind and, not to mention, beautiful Saleem is leaving L.A. for the summer to meet a girl his family is trying to set him up with.
Luckily, Quique’s prospects are each intriguing in their own ways. There’s stoner-jock Tyler Montana, who might be just as interested in Fabiola as he is in Quique; straight-laced senior class president, Ziggy Jackson; and Manny Zuniga, who keeps looking at Quique like he’s carne asada fresh off the grill. With all these choices, Quique is sure to forget about Saleem in no time.
But as the summer heats up and his deep-seated fears and anxieties boil over, Quique soon realizes that getting over one guy by getting under a bunch of others may not have been the best-laid plan, and living his truth can come at a high cost.
Author Recommended Playlist:
Brockhampton - Swim
Frank Ocean - Self Control
Mashrou’ Leila - Ashabi
Connect with Los Bookis!
@Los.Bookis.Podcast
@adriangaston.garcia
@que_viva_sergio_lopez
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