April 16, 2025 · 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. PT
What role does poetry play in shaping our sense of self and our connection to the world? How can poetic expression illuminate identity, belonging, and universal truths?
WeHo Reads: Richard Blanco and Kim Dower in Conversation During National Poetry Month
Wednesday, April 16 · 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. PT
What role does poetry play in shaping our sense of self and our connection to the world? How can poetic expression illuminate identity, belonging, and universal truths?
Join us for an inspiring National Poetry Month discussion between two celebrated poets whose work explores the intersection of identity, culture, and human connection. This engaging conversation will delve into their creative processes, their perspectives on poetry as a transformative art form, and the ways their experiences have shaped their work.
The event will feature:
• Richard Blanco, the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet, selected by President Obama, and a National Humanities Medal recipient. As a poet, memoirist, and advocate, Blanco’s work—including How To Love a Country and Homeland of My Body—reflects on cultural identity, belonging, and the human spirit, earning him widespread acclaim and recognition as a voice for diversity and justice.
• Kim Dower, former City Poet Laureate of West Hollywood, whose six acclaimed poetry collections—including her newest, What She Wants, Poems on Obsession, Desire, Despair, Euphoria as well as the bestselling I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom—are known for blending humor and heartache, memory and loss. Dower’s work has appeared in Ploughshares, Rattle, and O Magazine and is included in major anthologies such as Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond.
This dynamic exchange between two literary luminaries will offer insights into the transformative power of poetry and its ability to inspire both personal and collective change. This event is free to attend, and RSVPs are requested at www.weho.org/wehoreads.
WeHo Reads is a literary series presented by the City of West Hollywood. For more information and events, visit www.weho.org/wehoreads. The 2025 season is produced by BookSwell, a literary media company amplifying historically excluded voices. Additional support is provided by Poets & Writers and media partnerships with Book Soup and the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Authors
Richard Blanco
Selected by President Obama as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet in U.S. history, Richard Blanco was the youngest, the first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person to serve in that role. In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami in a working-class family, Blanco’s personal negotiation of cultural identity and the universal themes of place and belonging characterize Blanco’s many collections of poetry, including his most recent, Homeland of My Body. He is the Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and an Associate Professor at Florida International University.
More information: https://richard-blanco.com/
Kim Dower
Kim (Freilich) Dower (City Poet Laureate of West Hollywood from October 2016 – October 2018)has published six highly acclaimed collections of poetry all from Red Hen Press. Her most recent book, What She Wants: Poems on Obsession, Desire, Despair, Euphoria, was called “witty, sultry and thoughtful” by the Washington Post, and her bestselling, I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom, an Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist, was called a “fantastic collection” by The Washington Post, “impressively insightful, thought-provoking, and truly memorable” by The Midwest Book Review and Shelf-Awareness said, “These gorgeous gems are energized by the sheer power of her wit and irreverent style.” Air Kissing on Mars, Kim’s first collection, was described by the Los Angeles Times as, “sensual and evocative . . . seamlessly combining humor and heartache,” Slice of Moon was called “unexpected and sublime,” by “O” magazine, and Sunbathing on Tyrone Power’s Grave, won the 2020 Independent Publishers Book Award Gold Medal for Poetry. Kim’s work has been featured in numerous literary journals including Garrison Keillor’s “The Writer’s Almanac,” and her poems are included in several anthologies. She teaches poetry workshops for UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, and the West Hollywood Library. Born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, Kim lives with her family in West Hollywood, CA.
To learn more about Kim visit her website: www.kimdowerpoetry.com
