Uncategorized
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Sounds of Blackness
While some listen for echoes of Lincoln in Obama’s inaugural speech, others will hear Malcolm and Martin. Read Michael Eric Dyson’s full article here.
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The First Supper
Back when President-elect Barack Obama was still slugging it out for the Democratic nomination, I took to the kitchen to soothe my frazzled nerves. (Cooking relaxes me.) What I came up with was a Hawaiian and African inspired savory supper that I called Barack pie. On the eve of the most important inauguration of our…
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The Inaugural Poet
The selection of Yale professor and poet Elizabeth Alexander to write and deliver a poem at the inauguration of Barack Obama marks not only the return of poetry to a place of prominence in presidential history (she is only the fourth to read at a presidential swearing-in), but represents a true mind-meld between the president-elect…
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Tour of Echoes
WATCH THE ‘TOUR OF ECHOES‘ VIDEO HERE. Harry S. Truman met his successor, Dwight Eisenhower, at the exit of the U.S. Capitol minutes before the president-elect strolled to the stage to take the oath of office. Truman whispered, “There are thousands of folks out here, millions listening on the radio, and yet you’ll never feel…
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Sounds of Blackness
Barack Obama may defy many conventional notions of blackness, but his rhetoric is firmly rooted in black soil. While some listen for echoes of Lincoln in Obama’s inaugural speech, others will hear Malcolm and Martin. Read Michael Eric Dyson’s full article on washingtonpost.com.
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Bound for Glory
At 11:38 a.m. Saturday, a 10-car train carrying Barack Obama pulled out of 30th Street Station Philadelphia, taking the next American president on the symbolic final leg of his historic journey to the White House. The trip, meant to echo one that Abraham Lincoln took to Washington after his election 148 years ago, was yet…
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Final Score—Barack Obama, 44 George Bush, 43
We’ve all seen it—close rivals like Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski giving each other a half shake/quarter back-slap as the winner of a hard fought game leans in and says something to the loser without breaking stride as fans rush the floor. They want you to think it’s something magnanimous like, “Good game, you’ll get…
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SBF Seeking Her Own Barack
When searching for those adjectives that best capture the inauguration of the nation’s first black president, old standards come to mind—“historic!” “momentous!” “unprecedented!” Add to that venerable list “intellectual Freaknik” and “meet market for buppies,” because among the millions attending this weekend’s revelry are plenty of single, young black men and women looking to hook…
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Hollywood’s Leading Man
“Am I gonna be a great man, Mammy?” “You sho’ is, youse gwine be president. The book says anybody here can be president.” “Ain’t that somethin’!” —Sammy Davis Jr. and Ethel Waters in Rufus Jones for President Before anybody had even heard of Barack Obama, before anyone had even considered his presidency a possibility, it…
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Flight 1549 — Alive and Safe
The internet became abuzz when a US Airways jetliner began its descent into the water. But people’s fears were quickly put to rest. From The New York Times reporting, it seems as if a miracle occured on the Hudson River. But, according to Newsweek, the National Transportation Safety Board refuses to speculate about what happened.…