Join us for the premiere of an original, collaborative work created just for the Word festival. This performance piece will explore its creators’ immigrant roots—Paul Sullivan’s Irish heritage and Blanco’s from Cuba.

Richard Blanco, the fifth inaugural poet in U.S. history, is the youngest and the first Latino, immigrant, and gay person to serve in that role. Born in Spain to Cuban exile parents, he was raised in Miami. The negotiation of cultural identity characterizes his four collections of poetry: “City of a Hundred Fires,” “Directions to The Beach of the Dead,” “Looking for The Gulf Motel” and his latest book of poems, “How to Love a Country.” His memoir “The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood” won a Lambda Literary Award. “One Today,” his inaugural poem, was published as a children’s book. He has a home in Bethel.

Paul Sullivan, a Sedgwick resident, is a Grammy-winning jazz/classical composer and pianist. He has been music director, pianist, and/or conductor for multiple off-Broadway and Broadway shows and wrote the stage musical “The Last Ferryman” for Opera House Arts in Stonington. As a soloist, with his trio, and as a member of the Paul Winter Consort, he has played concert tours in most of the United States and Europe, as well as the Middle East, Central America, and Asia. His 18 CDs have sold more than 300,000 copies and have won three Indie Awards. He received the Grammy Award for his work on the CD Silver Solstice with Paul Winter.