Today we’d like to introduce you to Cito Blanko.
Hi Cito, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
The first poem I ever wrote, I wrote the night before a funeral. I was in the hospital, listening to the heart monitor beep on my mother’s chest. One of my closest friends was being buried the next day. And in that room, between those two realities, I had to come to terms with something. One day, all of this ends.
That’s where my pen began.
People always say you write words. But that night, words wrote me. Sometimes you pick up the pen. Sometimes the pen picks up you.
Now, where I come from matters. My mom’s from Waterhouse, Kingston. My pops is from the Orange District in Montego Bay. Two sides of the most influential island by square mile since Moses parted the Red Sea. And me? Born and raised in the place that birthed hip hop. The Bronx. So I’m standing on two shores at once, and both of them talk through my pen. I spent a lot of summers in Vermont too. But that’s a story for another day.
The name came before the stage. I was just looking for a social media handle. Something temporary. Something catchy. I went to school in the South Bronx, always around Spanish culture, and a friend said, yo, put Cito Blanco. It stuck. Somebody already had the C-O, so I made it K-O. Because sometimes my bars land like punchlines.
That night in the hospital is why I named my company Words That Write You. I teach Bronx kids social-emotional learning. Truth is, some kids don’t want to write poems. At that age, I didn’t either. But it’s deeper than poems. It’s the way you see life. The way you articulate it. The way you make sense of it. That’s all I really do. I people-watch, listen to my subconscious, and put it on paper with some jokes, some tears, and some laughter.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smooth isn’t the word I’d use.
My first stage wasn’t an open mic. It was an open casket. And honestly, the Grim Reaper has been finding his way back to my pen ever since. From the jump, death has been standing over my shoulder.
For a long time, that broke me. Imagination can set you free, or it can keep you in a prison. Mine did both. My mind could see a thousand ways it might all end, and that left me wide open. To grief. To loss. To manipulation.
Then I lost my aunt. Then my dad had a stroke. A lot of pain, all at once. But taking care of my dad taught me what nothing else could. A different kind of patience. Humility. Humanity. Empathy. Death stopped being the thing that scared me, and started being the thing that kept me present.
Because that’s the gift hiding in it. Everything has a yin and a yang. Death, heartbreak, even promotions, they all carry both sides. The work is staying on the side of grace and your blessings, and out of the quicksand where ambition and ego meet.
The only thing guaranteed is death. So I let it sharpen me instead of sink me. There’s a thousand ways it could go. But at the end of the day, God don’t make no mistakes.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a poet, a host, and a storyteller from the Bronx, New York.
I write commas so I can get commas. Not just checks. I want the space in between the words. That’s where I live. I specialize in talking my ish, reviving the future, and being the bridge between my ancestors’ spirit and my students’ subconscious minds.
What am I known for? Talking. On the stage, on the page, on the gram, and on the lives. I’m known for the truth, and for the minds that want to be awake.
Reading between the lines is what kept me outside the lines. And out of bars. I used to be a muckraker against synthetic stories and synthetic feelings. I’d put red marker around everything people said. Now I just quietly see it, write it down, and keep it noted. Not to stand above anybody. Just to protect my humanity, my sanity, and my overall dopeness from the agents of the matrix. Including the ones in my own head.
In 2019, I wrote my first book, 98 Sense. My whole life, people gave me their two cents. They just never stuck around to see how much was left. So I learned to keep the other 98. My own sense. My instincts. My vision. Then came my album, Expiration Dates. Because some things in your life are supposed to run out. Hold onto them too long, and you get trapped in a binary code.
What am I most proud of? That God let me ride all these ups and downs and still stay present. I told myself one day I’d get out of Foot Locker. That I’d be somewhere expressing my feelings and changing the education system. I don’t know whose lives I’ve changed. But I know what it looks like when a kid’s light turns on because something finally clicked.
The sweat equity I’m putting in now might look expensive one day. I’m paying it right now, so I can keep creating like the nine-year-old who just got his first Stone Cold Steve Austin toy.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Family. Friendship. Connection. Being a son of the Most High. I know those sound like clichés. But maybe they’re not just clichés. Maybe they’re instructions.
Because it gets tough. Sometimes the people you were doing it for aren’t here anymore, in spirit or in flesh. Or they’re still here, but they’re not the same people who stood beside you while you were building. That’s just the seasons.
So what matters to me is these kids. The future. My art. The truth. And making sure we understand that when this life is done, you don’t get another chance. Another day. Another second. Another “I wish I did.” Another ride down Fordham Road. Another trip to Paris, holding a woman’s hand.
You don’t get to transcribe her heartbeat again, after all those nights she laid on your chest. You get it one time. And even if it happens again, it’s never the same.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://citoblanko.my.canva.site/dag1sicgkcw
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citoblanko
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@citoblanko5078
Image Credits
PHOTOS BY @CHUCKWOLF @SPOOPYSCORNERSHOTS
