The College of the Florida Keys (CFK) invites the community to participate in CFK Poetics, comprised of virtual events on March 25 and April 29. The annual visiting poets series will feature live readings from nationally acclaimed poets Richard Blanco on Thursday, March 25 at 6 p.m. and Ross Gay on Thursday, April 29 at 6 p.m. They will read some of their works and take questions from the audience. These events will be primarily virtual. However, limited seating will be available in the CFK Library during the live streams of the readings. Both events are free for all attendees. Information to access the virtual events can be found on the College’s website at CFK.edu/poetics.  

CFK Poetics is made possible through the support of the Florida Humanities Council. The goal of this series is to connect the Florida Keys community and CFK students with poets whose work illustrates the critical intersections and changing landscapes and examines the social, psychological, and environmental changes that working-class residents in a tourist destination can identify with and by which they can be inspired. 

Events: 

• Poetry Reading with Richard Blanco 
  • Thursday, March 25 at 6:00 p.m.
  • About Richard Blanco: Selected by President Obama as the fifth inaugural poet in U.S. history, Richard Blanco is the first Latino, immigrant, and gay person to serve in such a role. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami, the negotiation of cultural identity characterizes his four collections of poetry: How To Love a Country, City of a Hundred Fires, Directions to The Beach of the Dead, and Looking for The Gulf Motel.
• Poetry Reading with Ross Gay
  • Thursday, April 29 at 6:00 p.m.
  • About Ross Gay: Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. His new poem, Be Holding, was released from the University of Pittsburgh Press in September of 2020. His collection of essays, The Book of Delights, was released by Algonquin Books in 2019. 

Funding for this program was provided through a grant from the Florida Humanities Council with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the Florida Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.