Poet Elizabeth Alexander to read at inauguration

[Joe the Revelator]

Elizabeth Alexander was a toddler in a stroller when her parents took her to hear Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington.

Now it's Alexander's turn to move the nation.


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/20/DD0C14R9NL.DTL&feed=rss.entertainment

My apologies if this has been mentioned.

[Joe the Revelator]

1. I guess this pick wasn't controversial enough.

[meowomon]

2. How nice for her that she can be married to the person she loves.

While my relationship of 15 years means nothing!

[Joe the Revelator]

3. Seriously? This is how you want to do this?

[meowomon]

4. What? Should I take my seat at the back of the bus?

Is it too soon for us to have our rights?

[Joe the Revelator]

5. Yes that is exactly what I'm saying

Or maybe, we can talk about more then just the same issue that we've talked about all week.

[meowomon]

6. Wow, take a seat at the back of the bus. Wow. This is from an Obama supporter?

Sad day for a Democrat.

[Joe the Revelator]

8. Are you even reading my posts or just spouting out at the mouth with stuff I never said?

This is how you get your point across? By trying some neo-McCarthyism?

[firedupdem]

7. I can't wait to hear her! n/t

[CTyankee]

9. Hey, she teaches at Yale in my home city of New Haven!

She is really low profile here. I am not in the Yale Community but I try to keep up by reading the Yale Daily News all the time, but I never see her doing a reading for the public, which is common for some of the Yale faculty.

This is so cool...

[Joe the Revelator]

10. From the article I think she is the first "National Poet" since the Clinton years

I don't remember Bush having had a poet read at his inaugurations, but I could be wrong. Either way, it bodes well for Art under Obama.

[CTyankee]

11. Well, Bush wouldn't know a poet if he tripped over one.

So that doesn't surprise me.

I think the arts will do well under Obama. The arts were part of the New Deal recovery programs and I'm sure they'll be part of Obama's.

[PatSeg]

12. Thanks!

K&R

[Bluenorthwest]

13. This woman is a great poet

I know a bit of her work, and I like it. She also wrote a verse play, I think, and anyone who does that can't be bad. Crazy maybe, but not bad.
Is this allowed? I googled a stanza from her poem 'Blues' that is sweet:



I avoided sleep for years,
up at night replaying
evening news stories about
nearby jailbreaks, fat people
who ate fried chicken and woke up
dead. In sleep I am looking
for poems in the shape of open
V's of birds flying in formation,
or open arms saying, I forgive you, all.