By Martine Powers NEW HAVEN, 10:00 p.m. — Elizabeth Alexander ’84, Obama’s inaugural poet, is an expert on poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks, whose career spanned from the 1940s until her death in 2000, was the lionized black poetess of South Side Chicago. In 2005, Alexander edited The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks, an anthology of Brooks’ most pivotal »
By Martine Powers CHICAGO, 5:00 p.m. – 17-year-olds Logan Spears and Miguel Pazoz from West Virginia visited Barack Obama’s former barbershop to have his name shaved into the backs of their heads. Then, they ate in Valois’, Obama’s favorite diner during his years in Hyde Park. Next, they plan on tracking down sold-out tickets to »
By Martine Powers CHICAGO, 4:40 p.m. – According to 61-year-old Roilynn Brown, today is Obama day. “Obama day! Obama day!” Brown chants to passersby on 53rd street in South Side neighborhood Hyde Park while handing out copies of the Hyde Park/Bronzeville community newspaper. “Here, take your newsletter.” Brown stands outside of a Dunkin Donuts, opening »
By Martine Powers CHICAGO, 1:19 a.m. — As satellite uplink trucks from news stations worldwide thronged alongside the entrance to the site of Tuesday’s Obama rally in Grant Park, a leisurely ballad rang out into the night, accompanied by the velvety strumming of a guitar. “Oh, oh, oh…. Obama… The Declaration of Independence… The Bill »