PollTrack: The Obama Project

Pilgrimage: 20 January 2009 Part 1

2009-02-05T13:01:12Z

National Cathedral. Day before the inauguration: The walls were singing, we were all singing!

7:30 in the morning. January 20, 2008 A papa and his son are getting some breakfast, going to stay there through the morning to chat. Dad says, "it's a pretty worthy morning to get out of the house early," turns to his kid and says, "you wanna be president some day?" then and turns back to me to giggle loudly. Ben's Chili Bowl is about a mile from The Mall, and at this point, 3 hours away from our final standing point.

Pilgrimage: 3.5 miles. 25 Degrees. .5 miles left This lovely couple had hot cocoa, tea and orange juice waiting for the brave ones on their pilgrimage towards The Mall.

10 AM, Lost. After the long walk through the chill and crowds we made it to The Mall; little problem about The Mall, its huge! We were barricaded. The police didn't know where to direct us. The only way to our section is through 2 million people and kitty cornered streets. "So where do I go?" In the craze and illegal jumping over fences (in a select few places), people paused to point others in the right direction. Some people never made it.

Pilgrimage: 20 January 2009 Part 2

2009-02-05T13:01:01Z

Celebrating: This woman is from the Virgin Islands. She was loudly chanting, "yes we can, yes we can, yes we did, yes we did, yes we're gonna do it, yes we're gonna do it!" Had all of us around her, freezing and emotional, crying with laughter at her rhythm and timing.

The Aftermath.

The Pilgrimage Home

Airport: In case there was a lapse in our view of reality, we would not forget the moment.

What Kind Of Cultural Leader Will Obama Be?

2009-02-02T15:24:38Z

Unlike most American presidents, he writes his own books. He is said to enjoy music, especially blues and jazz. His chief of staff was a ballet dancer. His appointees have enough PhDs to fill a faculty club. But what will his arts policy be like? And what will it mean for the visual arts?

Barack Obama was sworn in on 20 January with a historic mandate for change. Extraordinary times call for bold actions and visionary ideas. Big government is back. Hopes are for an administration that is not only more progressive, but also smarter.

This could be good news for the arts—as long as they can build a convincing case that they serve the public interest. Long banished to the periphery of public affairs, arts policy is poised to make a comeback under various 21st-century guises: from economic stimulus programs to “soft diplomacy” initiatives to digital-age intellectual property regulation. The opportunity to rethink government’s role comes at a time when it is readily acknowledged among arts professionals that cultural support in America is outdated in its assumptions, sclerotic in its methods, biased in its outcomes, and inefficient in its use of philanthropic and taxpayer dollars. It’s time to move on. But where?

In search of a road map, I hope I’ll be excused for borrowing from one of Obama’s fellow Chicagoans. Speaking in 2003, Donald Rumsfeld, the former US Defence Secretary, famously sorted events into three types. “Known knowns” are things we know, based on the record. “Known unknowns” are things we don’t yet know, but which should be clarified in due course. Finally, “unknown unknowns” are, in Rumsfeld’s words, “the ones we don’t know we don’t know”— circumstances for which no one has prepared.

Known Knowns

Short of major arts appointments or speeches by the President, we’re left with clues from the campaign and the transition. The Obama-Biden “Platform in Support for the Arts” was, by virtue of its existence, an extraordinary document. It was also unusually specific: invest in arts education, expand public/private partnerships between schools and arts organizations, create an “Artist Corps” to work in low-income schools and communities, increase funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), promote cultural diplomacy. There is every reason to believe these priorities should outlast the campaign.

Obama’s thinking on cultural issues is informed, in part, by a group of mainly Chicago-based academics and experts. One of his most influential advisers, Bill Ivey, the former NEA chairman now based at Vanderbilt University, is overseeing the transition of the major federal cultural agencies. His world view may be emblematic of emerging currents in arts policy.

Ivey’s approach, summarized in his 2008 book, Arts Inc. How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights, stresses the “expressive life” and “cultural vibrancy” of communities—qualities that rely on much more than the contributions of fine-arts institutions, such as museums. As a folklorist with ties to country music, Ivey is also a champion of universal and unfettered access to the “intangible heritage” of quintessentially American cultural forms, such as films and popular-music recordings. “The copyright-fueled marketplace is the biggest single obstacle separating Americans from the full exercise of our cultural rights,” he argues in his book. Government, in Ivey’s view, shouldn’t confine itself exclusively to nurturing professional non-profit arts organizations—which only keep going “back to the old well with a shinier, bigger bucket”. Public funds should flow where culture actually happens, and arts policy should vigorously embrace the broadcast and Internet domains.

Ivey is hardly alone in pushing beyond traditional notions of high culture. He represents a new school of arts-policy thinking that places value on hitherto underappreciated, amateur, community-based, digitally-mediated, often commercial arts—the kind of creative pursuits, in short, which most Americans enjoy. This broadening of perspective would constitute the biggest shift in policy since the implementation of large-scale cultural support in the post-war era.

Another widely anticipated change has to do with the mechanics of government support. Total cultural expenditures by the federal government—through agencies for education, trade, parks, transportation, trade, and even defense—vastly exceed the National Endowment’s paltry budget. (Compare the NEA’s $144m annual allocation to the $10 billion Obama has pledged for early childhood education.) Rather than try to massively boost the NEA—a hard sell, even in the best of times—the administration will likely emphasize coordination across the full breadth of government. No “arts czar” is likely to be installed in the West Wing, and my bet is that calls to create a cabinet-level “Secretary of the Arts” (as recently sounded by music producer Quincy Jones) will fall on deaf ears. But the arts may be inserted into the portfolios of senior departmental officials.

Economic stimulus and bailout projects would be the most obvious cross-agency initiatives. With the economy tanking, there is no shortage of proposals—including some that amount to wishful thinking. Mark I. Pinky, writing in The New Republic, for example, proposed a bailout for old-media journalists in a revival of FDR’s Federal Writers Project. From universities to museums, every cultural group is composing its own wish list. It shouldn’t be long before we hear pleas to revive Depression-era programs in art, music, and theater. If government could employ 3,700 visual artists in 1933-34, the thinking goes, why not do the same in our current hour of need?

But, unfortunately, the arts will be at the back of a long line of potential bailout targets—and, as the case of the Las Vegas mob museum that found its way into a Nevada bailout request exemplifies, some ideas will be shot down as frivolous. Moreover, the rationale for subsidizing art production isn’t as clear today as it was 70 years ago. Back then, America was a young nation with a weak arts infrastructure. Today, it may have a cultural overproduction problem—too much art chasing after the same audiences and dollars.

That’s why public investment will be directed to education and national-service initiatives (on the Peace Corps and Teach for America model). Beyond their unassailable human and community benefits, such programs create jobs while helping to replenish tomorrow’s arts audiences.

Known Unknowns

So what would a latter-day federal arts project look like? We don’t know, but we can guess. Few predict a renaissance of mural painting, as happened during the Great Depression, though restoring those WPA-era murals would be a good way to deploy idle artistic capacity (a huge inventory of cultural sites awaits refurbishment). A percent-for-art program attached to stimulus spending on schools, roads, bridges, hospitals, and mass transport could spark a boomlet in public art. Yet, a 21st-century public work project—if there is one—should address some contemporary needs and use the modern skills of today’s creative workers. The monumental effort of digitizing public collections and moving libraries and civic institutions online would be one place to start.

Here are some other policy domains that have likely, but as-yet unclear implications for the visual arts:

• Public diplomacy: Under Hillary Clinton, the State Department is expected to dust off the arsenal of “soft” statecraft to burnish America’s image in the world. Sponsorship for cultural and educational exchanges, exhibitions and festivals, heritage and preservation could uncork funds for the visual arts. Questions abound: would Secretary Clinton recreate the United States Information Agency (which her husband’s administration merged into State)? Would public diplomacy initiatives range beyond hot zones like the Middle East? Does today’s art faithfully represent America’s positive ideals, as Abstract Expressionism was believed to have done during the Cold War?

• Intellectual property: Intellectual property regulations have been fervently criticized for erecting unduly high barriers of access to content—a big problem for artists seeking to use source material by others. Yet copyright also underpins the livelihood of creative industries. Will copyright laws, in particular the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, come under review by the new administration? Can Obama engineer a workable compromise between content owners and content users?

• Old and new media: With the vast majority of Americans connecting to culture electronically, questions about distribution and access loom large. The Federal Communications Commission might become an important battleground of cultural policy. What will happen to public radio and public broadcasting? Do existing decency laws still make sense? Will “net neutrality”—the principle that all digital information must be treated equally—prevail online, or will telecommunications companies be allowed to impose tiered restrictions and fees on certain types of content?

• Tax policy: Much of America’s arts policy is, in fact, tax policy. The scale and timing of the rollback of Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy—including the perpetuation of the estate tax—will have a measurable impact on philanthropic donations, and thus, arts organizations. Several arts groups are pushing for tax incentives for artists to donate work to museums by allowing them to deduct the full fair-market value of their creations (they can presently deduct only materials). But how soon Obama can address taxation is anyone’s guess.

• Symbolic politics: Under Obama, artists may be a more frequent sight in the White House, and not just in an ornamental role. They can be parties to conversations about America’s problems, which require empathy and imagination to solve. In a time of anxiety, artists—who rallied behind Obama’s Presidential Campaign in unprecedented numbers—may be drafted to help lift the national spirit. This may sound touchy-feely, but Americans are, to an extent other nations consistently underestimate, remarkably susceptible to symbolic appeals. The story of Shepard Fairey’s reverential Obama portrait, which became an icon of the 2008 campaign and has now been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery (see right), may portend a new alliance between politics and art.

Unknown Unknowns

Finally, the surprises which nobody really knows how to tackle. The best-laid plans may have to be put on hold to deal with situations unlike any recent American president has faced.

What if there is a systemic failure of cultural institutions? How does public policy work during deflation? Who will sustain the arts if foundation assets go up in smoke? What should government do if scores of museums go bankrupt (as LA MOCA did) and private benefactors don’t step up (as they did in Los Angeles)? Should Washington rescue state arts budgets? Does austerity demand more oversight of nonprofits, or more freedom so they can figure out how to survive? More fundamentally, will a nation that has partially nationalized its financial institutions warm up to nationalizing cultural assets? What would US culture feel like if government were compelled to become more deeply enmeshed in the arts?

The most urgent question for the visual arts is whether they can make a valid claim on public resources amidst the current economic calamity. Or will they be branded elitist, out-of-touch, of no clear and present value to the project of national renewal? “As long as art is the beauty parlor of civilization, neither art nor civilization is secure,” the philosopher John Dewey warned in 1934, as America faced another upheaval while inventing a new cultural role for government. Barack Obama’s thinking may be similar, and the art world should take note.

András Szántó is a writer, researcher, and consultant whose work spans the worlds of art, media, policy, and cultural affairs. He is a member of the senior faculty of the Sotheby's Institute of Art in New York and director of the NEA Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. He is the founder of ArtworldSalon, the international online site on art issues and has been the editor of the journal ARTicles and Reflections.

This essay was first published in The Art Newspaper, www.theartnewspaper.com.

Transition Report

2009-01-28T07:51:45Z

Video Essays: With Students On The Ground

2009-01-24T15:25:12Z

Watching History Unfold: In this video essay, the AP's Julie Jacobson documents sixth graders at Eagle Academy in Brooklyn, New York, as they took in President Barack Obama's inaugural address on Tuesday, 20 January 2008.

Obama Inspires Students: In this video essay, Kindergarteners through eighth-graders at Chicago's Kate Starr Kellogg public school marked the inauguration of President Obama with a school parade, poetry and essays. An AP video essay by Martha Irvine.

For students, Swearing In Is A No-Go: Some Spelman College students came to Washington for the inauguration, riding all night in a bus. But they missed the swearing-in. Still, the AP's Lee Powell found the students still upbeat.

Video Essay: "The Moment" Of Presidency

2009-01-24T15:14:04Z

In this video essay, the Associated Press takes a look at how people around the world reacted to the moment the power of the Presidency was exchanged from George W. Bush to Barack Obama.

Elizabeth Alexander: "Praise Song For The Day"

2009-01-25T20:01:45Z

Praise Song for the Day

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.

I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

President Barack Obama's Oath of Office and Inaugural Address

2009-01-20T13:57:53Z

My fellow citizens, I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.

I thank President Bush for his service to our nation as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.

Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died in places Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn. Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed.

Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America. For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of our economy calls for action: bold and swift. And we will act not only to create new jobs but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its costs. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.

All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose and necessity to courage. What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.

Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.

And those of us who manage the public's knowledge will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government. Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched. But this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control. The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart -- not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good. As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.

Our founding fathers faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so, to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more. Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.

They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use. Our security emanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy, guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort, even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We'll begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard- earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we'll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense. And for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that, "Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you." For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.

We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.

And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. In the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.

To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those, to those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist. To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.

And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.

We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service: a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment, a moment that will define a generation, it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all. For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break; the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old.

These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.

What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship. This is the source of our confidence: the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny. This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed, why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall. And why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day in remembrance of who we are and how far we have traveled.

In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by nine campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.

Dr. King's Prediction

2009-01-20T07:48:44Z

BBC World News America has unearthed a clip of Dr Martin Luther King speaking to the BBC's Bob McKenzie in 1964 in which Dr King predicts an African-American president "in less than 40 years."

Inaugural Poems: A Brief History

2009-01-20T07:56:24Z

This report from CBS Evening News about poet Elizabeth Alexander also features a concise history of the reading of inaugural poems over the past half century, an event that has occured only three times before.

Children At Grant Park: 4 November 2008 (Part 2)

2009-01-17T15:13:08Z

Children At Grant Park: 4 November 2008 (Part 1)

2009-01-17T15:13:21Z

The Kline's Magic Voodoo Cookies

2009-01-16T08:05:53Z

Our contribution to The Obama Project was inspired by PollTrack's Presidential Map. We created a color-coded United States map out of cookies which we consumed at the home of our friends Eleanor and David Antin while watching election night returns. We were incredibly fearful as the evening began but our cookies seemed to work like magic.

Kline's Magic Voodoo Cookies, as we called them, worked! First, Eleanor devoured Florida. As the election night progressed, every contentious state that we preemptively consumed (Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana) fell to the Democrats. Texas was just too damn big to eat. But Woo-hoo we won the election regardless!

We had such fun gobbling up all the suspect states and cheering when they fell. Our Obama optimism has not yet waned and while we anticipate many struggles for the country, we feel like we at least have a chance.

Election Night--Grant Park

2009-01-14T11:14:02Z

Celebrating Elizabeth Alexander, Inaugural Poet

2009-01-13T20:03:10Z

Celebrating Elizabeth Alexander: Above is a video of the poet and cultural critic Elizabeth Alexander reading "Ars Poetica #101: I Believe," from her recent collection, American Sublime, a finalist for the Pulitizer Prize. Alexander is only the fourth poet in the history of the United States to be invited (by President-Elect Obama) to deliver a poem at an inauguration. Below is an excerpt from the University of Michigan Press website, which has just uploaded a fine celebration (and introduction for readers not familiar with her work) of Alexander. The webpage also includes a tribute to the poet from our own political director, Maurice Berger.

INAUGURATION 2009

Turn away from nothing. Face the sun.
Evolve at any cost.
From 10. Unfinished Tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks, Power & Possibility

Acclaimed poet and University of Michigan Press author Elizabeth Alexander will on January 20th become one of just four poets in the history of this country to have their poems included in a presidential inauguration. She will read a new poem at the ceremony swearing in President-elect Barack Obama, and we here at the UM Press could not be more proud. Congratulations, Professor!

About Elizabeth Alexander

Elizabeth Alexander was born in Harlem, New York City, and grew up in Washington, DC. She received a B.A. from Yale University, an M.A. from Boston University (where she studied with acclaimed West Indies poet Derek Walcott), and the Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania. Alexander has read her poetry and lectured on African-American literature and culture across the country and abroad.

She has published four books of poems, The Venus Hottentot (1990), Body of Life (1996), Antebellum Dream Book (2001) and, most recently, American Sublime (2005), which was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. American Sublime was chosen to be one of the 25 Notable Books of 2005 by the American Library Association, which called it "sparkling with humanity and unexpected grace." Her collection of essays, The Black Interior, was published in 2004.

In 2006, she contributed a poem and an introduction to Gathering Ground, the University of Michigan Press compilation of 10 years of work from the acclaimed Cave Canem Foundation for African-American poets, where she serves as a faculty member. In 2007, UM Press published Power & Possibility as part of its Poets on Poetry series. The book is Alexander's collection of her essays, reviews and interviews that study and comment on American literature and culture.

Her short stories and critical prose have been widely published in such periodicals and journals as Signs, The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The Village Voice, The Women's Review of Books, and The Washington Post. Her poems are anthologized in dozens of collections.

Her awards include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes, the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at the University of Chicago, the George Kent Award, given by Gwendolyn Brooks, and a Guggenheim fellowship. In 2007 Alexander won the first annual $50,000 Jackson Prize for Poetry, which honors an American poet of exceptional talent who has published at least one book of recognized literary merit. She is an inaugural recipient of the Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship for work that "contributes to improving race relations in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954."

Alexander's play, "Diva Studies," was produced at the Yale School of Drama in May 1996, and she was a dramaturge for Anna Deavere Smith's play "Twilight" in its original production at the Mark Taper Forum.

She has taught at Haverford College, the University of Chicago, New York University, and Smith College, where she was Grace Hazard Conkling Poet-in-Residence and first director of the Poetry Center at Smith College. She spent a year as a fellow of the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University. She is presently Professor of African-American Studies and English Literature at Yale University.

Prof. Alexander herself had this to say:

"I'm completely thrilled to have been chosen for this honor," she said in a Yale University interview. "Barack Obama is a man who understands the power and integrity of language. To be asked to turn my own words to this occasion and for this person is all but overwhelming."

"President-elect Obama has put poetry front and center, only the fourth time that this has happened at an inauguration," she told the Wall Street Journal. "It says culture matters, that it's transforming and not merely stirring, that it's fundamental to ways in which we can think about moving forward...

"Poetry, because it is language distilled and because it is also such intensely precise language, provides us with a moment of respite and meditation, moments where we have to stop and listen very carefully to every word."

What others have to say about Elizabeth Alexander:

"President-Elect Obama has made a wise choice in Elizabeth Alexander, a poet of exceptional eloquence, depth, and grace. In the tradition of James Baldwin, Susan Sontag, and Toni Morrison, she is equally adept as literary writer, social observer, and cultural critic. Her inaugural poem will no doubt inspire our nation in this troubled and extraordinary time."
—Maurice Berger, Senior Research Scholar, Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County

"Elizabeth Alexander's verse sings the plight and the power of those who struggle to survive. The smallest details of daily life, the resounding echoes of epochs, find their voices in her work. Alexander has woken us to a dream of deliverance that we share with language and music..."
—Homi K. Bhabha, Harvard University

"Elizabeth Alexander is one of the brightest stars in our literary sky, a poet of poise and power. Her sharp intelligence and her knowledge of the contemporary arts make her a superb, invaluable commentator on the American scene...With her considerable poetic skills and her complex vision of American history and culture, Elizabeth Alexander is an inspired choice to play such a prominent role in the presidential inauguration."
—Arnold Rampersad, Stanford University

Ode To Joy

2009-01-13T14:49:25Z

Twas the eve of the future and all through the world
An electoral battle anxiously swirled.
The votes were all marked with unusual care
And still there were cases of ballot despair—
Whole graveyards were voting, or Elvis was there.
Polls said the numbers were awfully tight.
Too close to call, a tie, then not quite.
From Georgia to Texas to Oregon too,
Red on one side, the other in blue,
Every constituency was poised to sue.
McCain had curled up for just one more nap,
Biden was prudently shutting his trap.
In Alaska, the Palins were snug in their beds,
While visions of rapture danced in their heads.
But Barack Obama pressed on through the night,
Calling for change, and to do what is right.
When November 4th dawned, he had fought the good fight.
The people came out in state after state,
They lined up at daybreak, they voted till late.
They voted in hoards and voted some more,
They voted in numbers unseen heretofore.
"Begone Dubya! and Cheney! and Condi, you vixen!
Out, Chertoff! Off, Rove! Stop the bombin’ and blitzin’!
To the edge of the gangplank, the waterboards call!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!”
Despite being black or his name being funny,
Despite fears he was secretly Muslim—a Sunni?--
The results that came in left nothing to spin:
Obama had managed to win, baby, win.
Destruction averted, the world’s back in line.
There’s much to be done, but we’ll all be fine.
The Klieg lights shining in Grant Park that night
Gave the luster of day to the faces so bright.
So relieved of their fears, so glistening with tears,
A heartfelt goodbye to the last eight dreadful years.

Patricia J. Williams is James L. Dohr Professor of Law, Columbia University Law School. She has published widely in the areas of race, gender, and law, film, culture, legal theory and history. She is a columnist for The Nation and the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious MacArthur fellowship.

I Have A Dream

2009-01-13T14:49:25Z

Grant Park, Election Day 2008 (Part ll)

2009-01-13T14:49:25Z

Grant Park, Election Day 2008 (Part l)

2009-01-13T14:49:25Z

The Necessity For Hope

2009-01-13T21:14:46Z

Back in 1995 a distinguished committee of colleagues and I, perhaps presumptuously, determined to define and rank the basic elements of democracy—in preparation for a handbook we were working on. Though the list contained the obvious essentials, like the rule of law, freedom of the press, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens, we ranked first “trust, goodwill and idealism.” I would be more succinct now and simply call that first imperative hope.

President- elect Obama speaks of the audacity of hope—and I invite you to reflect on the necessity for hope-- in building, sustaining and, yes, healing a democratic society. Acts of terrorism, more often than not, dependent on men and women willing to die for their cause, differ from democratic process dramatically—and tragically, because they are acts of hopelessness. Hope ranges from cautious optimism to instrumental optimism to rose-colored-glasses optimism—maybe from the sublime to the ridiculous—or at least from the sensible to the naive.

I am in praise of and advocate for hope because it is a necessity for progressive change. It gives us the audacity to insist on the rule of law. We can only opt for this enlightened approach to governance because we hope and trust that our neighbors as well as we will obey the laws that are created by and for the people. We can only promote the free flow of ideas in the press and elsewhere because we trust that for the most part we will hear the truths and opinions of our very diverse population and we can endure and benefit from a very wide range of views.

Terrorism is the instrument of the hopeless and powerless. It requires a lot of ingenuity and yes, audacity, but it is at the same time, nihilism incarnate--killing for killing’s sake out of the despair generated by systems that have no place for citizens. Citizens thrive and build societies that thrive by virtue of their law-given rights and responsibilities. There is no more effective way to make the changes that stretch a society, helping it to come closer to such ideals as “liberty and justice for all.”

The Obama presidency comes at the best and worst of times. Perhaps every generation finds itself in that Dickensian predicament. We Americans have taken an important step forward not only by electing our first African American president, but by electing a man of incomparable intelligence and integrity. And, at the same time, we find ourselves in our worst economic downturn since the great depression. And so we are giving our new president a daunting challenge—with the hope that he will deliver us into an era of promise.

Obama brings hope to Americans and, indeed, to the world. We hope that the tragedies of the last decades, born of many factors, including the collapse of the old world order, which left us, in the words of philosopher Hannah Arendt, “between the no longer and the not yet,” will be replaced by an era of promise to all the world’s people. The candidate of change —the leader of promise—is the beginning of our “new hope”—a cautious optimism founded in our belief in democracy and in an extraordinary leader.

But that “new hope” will be to naught if it does not energize and inspire us to seize the moment by rededicating ourselves to what the late Justice Louis Brandeis termed the most important job in our democracy—that of the citizen. Obama has made it clear that the task ahead-- running this country and leading the world—is not a one man job. It is our job, Democracy is not about charismatic leaders alone—it is played out in the every day actions of people like us enjoying our rights as individuals and assuming the responsibilities of citizenship.