Writers on Obama's First Year

Laila Lalami and Junot Diaz have both written pieces that assess Obama's first year. Read Lalami's "Hope but no Change" here, and Diaz's "Storyteller-in-Chief" here.

Goodbye, 2009

I want to end my posts this year with this photo, taken in August, of the Obamas arriving in Phoenix via Air Force One. I won't lie, I'm ready to see this year end, but I'm remembering the good things that happened in 2009 like the chills I always got just seeing this family represent. Look at Malia who is almost a woman, and Sasha with that little bun. Yes, there are many unfortunate things going on in the world, but just look, LOOK at our First Family.

Obama On My Mind

President Obama is scheduled to speak at Arizona State University's commencement ceremony this evening at 7 p.m. and so all of Phoenix is abuzz. Before 8 a.m. this morning, I saw helicopters flying over campus and security guards standing outside Sun Devil Stadium where the ceremony will take place. I decided at the last minute to donate my tickets to two people who really wanted to go. I wanted to see the prez, too, but the last time I did a stadium crowd was at a football game in 1984 at the University of Michigan. The guy next to me drank so much beer he got, well, sick. I haven't been too fond of stadiums since. Besides, it will be over100 degrees today.

Last night, the president hosted a Poetry Jam at the White House. The event was first publicized as a slam, but because there was no competition, the White House is now saying use "jam" instead of "slam," please.

The president is outdoing Oprah when it comes to money-making endorsements. When he recently mentioned that he was reading the novel Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, sales for the book increased and it went into a second printing.

And finally, Obama is on my mind because I'm trying to finish an essay about what his presidency means. The essay is due next week but I'm finding it hard to write something original. I can list all of the interpretations about the presidency that we've already read:

1) Obama's presidency represents post-blackness.
2) Obama's presidency represents black exceptionalism.
3) Obama represents biracialism, multiculturalism, etc.
4) Mrs. O's clothes/arms/butt/hair represent ___________(fill in the blank).
5) Obama's presidency means the end of black artistic angst.

So that's where I am, listing cliches and hoping to find something, anything fresh to say.

Perfect Poetry-Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQgZHvZrsII

Check out the First Couple's first dance. Beautiful!