WATERVILLE — Acclaimed poet and artistic visionary Richard Blanco will read and discuss selections from “Boundaries” and other work centered on the meaning of home and the boundaries of race, gender, class and ethnicity and challenge the dividing lines, historical and current, that shadow America at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27, in Colby’s Given Auditorium in the Bixler Art and Music Building, according to a news release from the college. In addition, Blanco will teach a course called “Teach This Poem: Poetry and Art in Education,” in which his students will work with area schoolchildren at the Alfond Youth Center in Waterville. These children will then participate in a public reading of their poetry at the Colby museum May 8. Blanco’s engagement with the community will also include seminars for local teachers and small-group workshops at the Waterville Public Library and the South End Teen Center.

Blanco, whose stirring words celebrated the 2013 Inauguration of President Barack Obama and whose creative spirit has been recognized around the world, is in residence at the Colby College Lunder Institute for American Art this month. Blanco is the spring-semester artist in residence for the institute’s inaugural year.

“We are delighted to welcome Richard Blanco to Colby,” said Sharon Corwin, the Colby museum’s Carolyn Muzzy director and chief curator, according to the release. “His engagement offers just the type of creative dialogue that the Lunder Institute can foster between our Colby and Waterville communities.”

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact 859-4369 or pr@colby.edu.

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