Experts
Elizabeth Alexander
Poet
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Elizabeth Alexander Reads ‘The Elders’
Elizabeth Alexander captures the Obama moment. Read More
February 27, 2009 | In Arts & Culture, Politics & Policy
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Elizabeth Alexander on Language and Racial Identity
The poet considers race from a linguistic perspective Read More
February 27, 2009 | In Identity
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Elizabeth Alexander on the Importance of Race to the Obama Presidency
Elizabeth Alexander on the power of racial identity. Read More
February 27, 2009 | In Identity
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Elizabeth Alexander on Abstraction in Poetry
Elizabeth Alexander on the poet's duty. Read More
February 27, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
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Elizabeth Alexander on Poetry as a Cultural Unifier
The poet cites Adrienne Rich and “the dream of a common language.” Read More
February 27, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
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Elizabeth Alexander on Teaching and Learning Poetry
The poet covers poetry’s dynamics, from graduate to grade school. Read More
February 27, 2009 | In Politics & Policy
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Elizabeth Alexander on African American Poetry
The poet speaks to the breadth of influences that has created the genre. Read More
February 27, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
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Elizabeth Alexander’s State of Poetry Address
Elizabeth Alexander on the paradox of unprofitability. Read More
February 27, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
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Elizabeth Alexander on a Cultural Renaissance in the United States
Elizabeth Alexander on reawakening the arts in America. Read More
February 27, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
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Elizabeth Alexander on Inauguration Day
The poet describes how she crafted and read the inaugural poem. Read More
February 27, 2009
Elizabeth Alexander is Professor of African American Studies and future Chair of the African American Studies Department at Yale University. In 2008, Dr. Alexander was selected by President-elect Barack Obama to compose and read a poem for his inauguration. She is the author of four books of poems, The Venus Hottentot, Body of Life, Antebellum Dream Book, and American Sublime, which was one of the American Library Association’s 25 Notable Books of the Year as well as one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.Her collection of essays on African American literature, painting, and popular culture, The Black Interior, was published in 2004. Her verse play, "Diva Studies," was produced at the Yale School of Drama in May 1996.Alexander has taught at the University of Chicago, where she won the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, New York University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program, and Smith College, where she was Grace Hazard Conkling Poet-in-Residence, first director of the Poetry Center at Smith College, and member of the founding editorial collective for the feminist journal Meridians.Professor Alexander 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.” She teaches courses on African American poetry, drama, and 20th century literature, as well as the survey introduction to African American Studies and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
Her collection of essays on African American literature, painting, and popular culture, The Black Interior, was published in 2004. Her verse play, "Diva Studies," was produced at the Yale School of Drama in May 1996.
Alexander has taught at the University of Chicago, where she won the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, New York University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program, and Smith College, where she was Grace Hazard Conkling Poet-in-Residence, first director of the Poetry Center at Smith College, and member of the founding editorial collective for the feminist journal Meridians.
Professor Alexander 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.” She teaches courses on African American poetry, drama, and 20th century literature, as well as the survey introduction to African American Studies and is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
