President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted students from American,
Gallaudet, Georgetown, and Howard Universities in May 2009, allowing them to
participate in an evening celebrating poetry, music, and the spoken word.
"We're here to celebrate the power of words," President Obama said.
Words "help us to appreciate beauty and also understand pain; to inspire us
to action, and to spur us on when we start to lose hope; to lift us up out of
our daily existence—even if it's just for a few moments—and return us with
hearts that are a little bit bigger and fuller than they were before."M/p>
Spoken word presentations included works by Chicago's Mayda del Valle,
Hawaiian poet Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio, "Brave New Voices" slam
champion Joshua Bennett, and Lin Manuel Miranda, the creator of the Tony
Award-winning Broadway musical "In the Heights," among others.
Learn more about the arts event at the White House, and view clips from the
evening's performances.
On the web at: www.poets.org/whitehouse
