咖啡里是否该搞一个就职演说作文比赛,上次touche就手痒得想帮Obama写演说稿。
- Re: 新总统就职演说是哪一天?posted on 12/13/2008
I still have not decided to use whose writing for my speech yet.
玛雅 wrote:
咖啡里是否该搞一个就职演说作文比赛,上次touche就手痒得想帮Obama写演说稿。 - posted on 12/19/2008
Helping to Write History
The job requires him to work unnoticed, even in plain view, so Jon Favreau settles into a wooden chair at a busy Starbucks in the center of Penn Quarter. Deadline looms, and he needs to write at least half a page by the end of the day. As the espresso machines whir, Favreau opens his laptop, calls up a document titled "rough draft of inaugural" and goes to work on the most anticipated speech of Barack Obama's life.
During the campaign, the buzz-cut 27-year-old at the corner table helped write and edit some of the most memorable speeches of any recent presidential candidate. When Obama moves to the White House next month, Favreau will join his staff as the youngest person ever to be selected as chief speechwriter. He helps shape almost every word Obama says, yet the two men have formed a concert so harmonized that Favreau's own voice disappears.
"He looks like he's in college and everybody calls him Favs, so you're like, 'This guy can't be for real, right?' " said Ben Rhodes, another Obama speechwriter. "But it doesn't take long to realize that he's totally synced up with Obama. . . . He has access to everything and everybody. There's a lot weighing on his shoulders."
Especially now, as Favreau and the rest of Obama's young staffers begin a transition that extends far beyond new job titles. Three months ago, Favreau lived in a group house with six friends in Chicago, where he rarely shaved, never cooked and sometimes stayed up to play video games until early morning. Now, he has transformed into what one friend called a "Washington political force" -- a minor celebrity with a down payment on a Dupont Circle condo, whose silly Facebook photos with a Hillary Rodham Clinton cutout created what passes for controversy in Obama's so far drama-free transition.
Favreau believes he will transition well if he focuses exclusively on writing, which is why he has buried himself in the inaugural address. He moves while he writes to avoid becoming stale -- from the Starbucks, to his windowless transition office, to his new, one-bedroom condo, where the only furniture in place is a blow-up mattress on the hardwood floor. He sometimes writes until 2 or 3 a.m., fueled by double espresso shots and Red Bull. When deadline nears, a speech consumes him until he works 16-hour days and forgets to call home, do his laundry or pay his bills. He calls it "crashing."
Last month, Favreau met for an hour in Chicago with Obama and adviser David Axelrod, as is their habit before important speeches. Obama told him to make the inaugural address no longer than 15 or 20 minutes, and they agreed to theme it around, Favreau said, "this moment that we're in, and the idea that America was founded on certain ideals that we need to take back." Obama asked for a first draft by Thanksgiving. Favreau explained that he had planned a vacation and promised a draft by this week.
During his vacation, Favreau e-mailed notes to himself via BlackBerry while visiting friends in Manhattan and talked about structure at his family's Thanksgiving dinner. He listened to recordings of past inaugural addresses and met with Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan's speechwriter, to seek advice. One of Favreau's assistants researched other periods in history when the United States faced crises; another interviewed historians such as David McCullough.
Still more daunting is the list of things Favreau can't think about as he writes the inaugural. He went for a run to the Lincoln Memorial last month and stopped in his tracks when he imagined the mall packed with 3 million people listening to some of his words. A few weeks later, Favreau winced when Obama spokesman Bill Burton reminded him: "Dude, what you're writing is going to be hung up in people's living rooms!"
"If you start thinking about what's at stake, it can get paralyzing," Favreau said.
Obama sometimes jokes that Favreau is not so much a speechwriter as a mind reader. He carries Obama's 1995 autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," with him almost everywhere and has memorized most of his famous keynote speech from the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He has mastered Obama's writing style -- short, elegant sentences -- and internalized his boss's tendency toward reflection and ideological balance.
Favreau's job is "to be like a baseball umpire," one co-worker said, and perform his task so deftly that nobody notices him. He listens to Obama tell stories in his office and spins them into developed metaphors, rich in historical context. When Obama delivers a speech on the road, Favreau studies the recording and notes the points at which Obama departs from the text so he can refine the riffs and incorporate them next time.
In four years together, Obama and Favreau have perfected their writing process. Before most speeches, Obama meets with Favreau for an hour to explain what he wants to say. Favreau types notes on his laptop and takes a crack at the first draft. Obama edits and rewrites portions himself -- he is the better writer, Favreau insists -- and they usually work through final revisions together. If Favreau looks stressed, Obama sometimes reassures him: "Don't worry. I'm a writer, too, and I know that sometimes the muse hits you and sometimes it doesn't. We'll figure it out together." - Re: 新总统就职演说是哪一天?posted on 12/19/2008
我都手痒想写一篇了。 - Re: 新总统就职演说是哪一天?posted on 12/20/2008
- posted on 12/23/2008
刚接到组织上传发的总统就职仪式上的诗人代表介绍。咖啡也该应景写点什么祝贺。
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Elizabeth Alexander
Elizabeth Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright, and teacher. 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 three finalists for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. She is also a scholar of African-American literature and culture and recently published a collection of essays, The Black Interior. She has read her work across the U.S. and in Europe, the Caribbean, and South America, and her poetry, short stories, and critical prose have been published in dozens of periodicals and anthologies. She has received many grants and honors, most recently 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," and the 2007 Jackson Prize for Poetry, awarded by Poets and Writers. She is a professor at Yale University, and for the academic year 2007-2008 she is a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at s a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
http://elizabethalexander.net/home.html
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/us/politics/21poet.html
nytimes.com
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Poet Chosen for Inauguration Is Aiming for a Work That Transcends the Moment
C J Gunther
Elizabeth Alexander, contemporary poet, is tapping Auden and Gwendolyn Brooks for inspiration for her "occasional poem."
December 21, 2008
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Elizabeth Alexander, who teaches at Yale, was plucked last week from the relatively obscure recesses of contemporary poetry for a moment on the world stage. President-elect Barack Obama has commissioned her to compose and read a poem for his inauguration, making her only the fourth poet in American history to read at one and elevating the art to unaccustomed prominence in the national psyche, at least for a day.
Mr. Obama's inauguration, on Jan. 20, calls for an "occasional poem," written to commemorate a specific event. This is not precisely what Ms. Alexander does, but she is preparing for the challenge.
"Writing an occasional poem has to attend to the moment itself," she said in an interview, "but what you hope for, as an artist, is to create something that has integrity and life that goes beyond the moment."
To prepare, she has delved into W. H. Auden, particularly his "Musée des Beaux Arts" ("About suffering they were never wrong/The Old Masters"), and the work of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize, for poetry. Auden, she said, "asked very large questions about how we stand in history." And Brooks has had a major influence on her work.
"She should have been the one, were she living, for this," Ms. Alexander said of the honor bestowed by Mr. Obama. "The Bard of the South Side. She wrote from Obama's neighborhood for so many years." Here she recited Brooks's familiar line: "Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind."
"Language like that," Ms. Alexander said, "has eternal life."
Ms. Alexander, 46, is the incoming chairwoman of the African-American studies department at Yale and the mother of two sons, 9 and 10. She writes often of race, gender and class, in both poetry and prose, nurtures young black poets through Cave Canem, a poetry workshop, and has been a friend of Mr. Obama for more than a decade.
Asked if she thought that the friendship played a role in her being picked for the inauguration, she said no. The Obamas have many friends and know other poets, she said.
"One of the things we've seen with every choice he's made is that it's based on what he perceives as excellence," Ms. Alexander said. "I don't think you would let friendship determine who you chose to do something like this. You can do lots of things to be nice to your friends — you can invite them to an inaugural ball. But I don't think friends have to do each other this kind of favor."
Ms. Alexander was born in Harlem, where her father's family was rooted, but grew up in Washington, where she attended Georgetown Day School and Sidwell Friends, then Yale. Politics, she said, was "in the drinking water in my house." Her father, Clifford, was a civil rights adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson and was instrumental in the passage of the Voting Rights Act. He was the first black to be named secretary of the Army and chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Her mother, Adele, teaches African-American women's history at George Washington University. Her brother, Mark, teaches at Seton Hall Law School and served as policy director to Bill Bradley's presidential campaign in 2000. An expert in campaign finance, he was a senior adviser to Mr. Obama's campaign and is a member of his transition team.
Ms. Alexander has been on the faculty of several universities, including the University of Chicago, where she taught creative writing and African-American literature and won the Quantrell Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching. It is there in the 1990s that she met Barack and Michelle Obama.
"We're of the exact same generation," she said. "They are people with whom I have a lot in common."
There was some question about whether Mr. Obama would include a poet at all in his inaugural program. There have been only three: Robert Frost in 1961, Maya Angelou in 1993 and Miller Williams in 1997.
Mr. Obama has not said publicly why he wanted a poet or why he chose Ms. Alexander. But Emmett Beliveau, the executive director of Mr. Obama's inaugural committee, said that having a poet shows "the important role that the arts and literature can play in helping to bring our country together" and that Ms. Alexander "is an incredibly accomplished author and academic."
Paul Muldoon, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who teaches at Princeton and is poetry editor of The New Yorker, said he guessed that Ms. Alexander was chosen on "literary merit." He said her work "addresses a wide range of issues with terrific complexity."
And Ms. Angelou said that when she heard of Ms. Alexander's selection, she smiled. "She seems much like Walt Whitman," she said. "She sings the American song."
Ms. Alexander said she believes her poetry "attends to history," including "sometimes thorny and difficult American history," even as it speaks in contemporary moments and landscapes.
And she said Mr. Obama is attuned to the value of poetry. "He has said the precise and distilled and mindful language of poetry is perhaps something that can create a moment of meditation for us," she said.
After examining previous inaugural poems, she has decided that hers will be brief. "This is one small piece of many pieces and we know what the centerpiece is," she said, referring to Mr. Obama's inaugural address.
"President-elect Obama is extremely efficient with language," she added. "It is tremendously rich and tremendously precise but also never excessive. I really, really admire that. That's a poet's sensibility. I'm going to follow his lead."
- posted on 12/23/2008
The Presidential Inauguration will be held on January 20, 2009. A week of festivities will include the Presidential Swearing in Ceremony, Inaugural Address, Inaugural Parade and numerous inaugural balls and galas honoring the new President of the United States. The official theme for the 2009 inauguration is “Renewing America’s Promise,“ a vision that underscores the President-elect and Vice President-elect’s commitment to restoring opportunity and possibility for all and re-establishing America’s standing as a beacon of hope around the world.
Important Note: The Presidential Inaugural Committee was established following the election. Details of the events will be announced here as they are officially released. Please check back over the next few weeks for updates.
Overview of the Inauguration Schedule
Saturday, January 17 - Obama, Biden and their families will travel by train to Washington, DC and will host events along the way in Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. (Details to be Announced)
Sunday, January 18 – An official welcome event will be held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to kick off the inaugural celebration. The event will be open to the public. (Details to be Announced)
Monday, January 19 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - To honor Dr. King’s legacy, Obama, Biden and their families will participate in activities dedicated to serving others in communities across the Washington, DC area. Additional events will be held throughout the week. See the schedule of events.
Inaugural Eve Concert for America's Children - A free youth concert will be held at the Verizon Center. The concert will be free, but tickets will be required. (Details to be Announced)
Tuesday, January 20 - Inauguration Day- Swearing-in ceremony, Inaugural Parade, and official Inaugural Balls. (See details below)
With the election of Barack Obama - the first black president in America - inaugural events are expected to draw record breaking crowds to Washington, DC. Getting around the region throughout the four-day inaugural weekend will be challenging. Washington Metro is gearing up for the events with increased hours and security. See Inauguration 2009 Transportation Guide for details.
Inauguration Swearing-in Ceremony
January 20, 2009 - The oath of office will be administered on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.
TIME: Gates to the Inaugural Swearing-in Ceremony open at 9 a.m. and the musical prelude begins at 10 a.m. Ceremony begins at noon. See details about the program.
TICKETS: Each Senator and Representative receives a limited quantity of free tickets that they may distribute to the public at their discretion. The public should be aware that no website or other ticket outlet actually has inaugural swearing-in tickets to sell, regardless of what they may claim.
Those who come to witness the swearing-in ceremony will be able to watch and listen to the ceremony on large screens that will be set up along the National Mall.
Following the oath of office, the President will give his inaugural address, setting out his vision for America and goals for the nation. After the Inauguration ceremonies, the President and the Vice-President will attend an inaugural luncheon in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
Presidential Inauguration Parade
January 20, 2009, 2:30 p.m. Tickets are not required. The public will not be allowed to lineup along the parade route before 7 a.m.
Location: Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC
Viewing stands and bleachers will extend from 3rd to 17th Sts.
Read more about the inaugural parade.
The presidential inaugural parade is coordinated by the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee (AFIC) which includes members from all branches of the armed forces of the United States. Since 1789, the U.S. armed forces have participated in this important American tradition honoring our commander in chief. During the 10-day inaugural period from January 15 to January 24, 2009, armed forces personnel will provide ceremonial support with musical units, marching bands, color guards, salute batteries and honor cordons.
To participate in the parade, contact the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee
Inauguration Balls
Many inaugural balls and galas will take place at venues throughout Washington, DC from January 15 - 24, 2009. The official balls are planned by the Presidential Inaugural Committee and unofficial balls and parties are planned by the State Societies of Washington, DC and a variety of other organizations. Dozens of events will be announced in the coming weeks. See a guide to Inaugural Balls and Galas.
Inauguration Travel Information and Tips
There are three airports that are convenient to Washington, DC: Reagan National, Dulles International and Baltimore Washington International. Find the best rate and reserve your ground transportation ahead. Read more about airports near Washington, DC.
Amtrak trains serve Washington, DC and arrive at Union Station.
The best way to get to the inaugural events from around the region will be by Metro. However, it will be very crowded and there are likely to be long lines and delays. Arrive early and be patient. You should purchase your Metro fare in advance to save time. Read A Guide to Using Washington Metrorail for more details.
All parade and event attendees will be subject to a thorough security screening. Allow for additional time and be aware of prohibited items. Read more about Inauguration Security.
Dress for the weather! January in Washington, DC can be very cold. If we are lucky it will be a clear day in the 40s. DC weather is variable so be prepared for a cold and damp day. Umbrellas will not be allowed due to security concerns.
Following the inaugural parade, plan to stay in the city and visit a museum or go to a movie. Let the crowd thin out before taking public transportation out of town.
If you'd like to see any of the city's popular attractions while you are in town for the inauguration, good luck navigating the crowds. Your best bet would be to make advance reservations wherever possible. Check out these DC attractions that require advance planning.
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