Poetry Jammin' at the White House

Last night was a White House poetry jam, not poetry slam.

A slam is a competition; a jam is general enjoyment all around. I believed a slam was possible, even at the W.H. To say why would get me in trouble.

Bottom line, this was no dull poetry read. It was rapping and loose.

The NYTimes Caucus blog reports that "a pong-tailed disc jockey hovered over a pair of turntables in the hallway . . . " We get the vision. This is not Barbara Bush's White House. (Note the Laura Bush did invite poets to the W.H. but had to cancel her 2003 invite, because the poets intended to protest the Iraq War. Poets tend to walk to their own beat.)

“Our goal really is to bring the house alive,’’ said Desiree Rogers, the White House social secretary. “We’re all American, but all of us come from different backgrounds. We want to expose Americans to other Americans that are doing brilliant work.’’

Poetry is popular again with the young, as an extension of rap. The medium allows poets to celebrate and agonize over the subjects that define their daily lives.

Director Spike Lee was there, along with TV host George Stephanopoulos, pianist Eric Lewis and the bassist and singer Esperanza Spalding.

James Earl Jones read from Othello. Mayda del Valle, honoring the Obamas home town of Chicago, paid homage to her grandmother, teling folks that she never ever dreamed she would be invited to perform at the White House.

“To be able to go in the White House and to represent my grandmother and my ancestors, it really means a lot,” she said. “It’s a generation of women that don’t often get heard, you know, these old Puerto Rican women that no one ever really thinks about. To be able to use my voice to represent them on this kind of platform is really powerful.”

The event will be available on a streaming video from the White House, but it wasn't working on my Mac just now. Anne