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Enjoy a collection of poetry and other word artistry curated by WNPR.

A Conversation With Elizabeth Alexander

Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Elizabeth Alexander

Ficre Ghebreyesus and Elizabeth Alexander were born two months apart in 1962, he in Eritrea, she in Harlem. They didn’t meet until 1996. He was an artist and a chef at a New Haven Eritrean restaurant he owned with his brothers. She was a poet and professor. She had been teaching at the University of Chicago, where she had also met a senior lecturer named Barack Obama. She married Ghebreyesus. She delivered Obama’s 2009 inaugural poem. In 2012, a few days after her husband’s 50th birthday, he died abruptly. Her new book, “The Light of The World,” tells that story.

GUEST:

  • Elizabeth Alexander - poet, essayist, playwright and teacher; Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, poetry professor at Yale University; author of The Light of the World

MUSIC:

Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Colin can be reached at colin@ctpublic.org.

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