The life of Elizabeth alexander:
Self portrait by ficre
AlexandeR's favorite Painting by ficre
Captured moments of her Life
On May 30, 1962 Elizabeth Alexander was born in Harlem, New York to A Civil Rights Advisor and spent her childhood in Washington, DC. She received her BA from Yale university, an MA from Boston University, and a PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania. She began writing poetry at a very young age but it was first showcased in 1990 with Crave Radiance: new and selected poems, and the Venus Hottentot (University Press of Virginia). In 1996, she met Ficre Ghebreyesus, an escapee from Sudan who moved to the United States and later attended Yale University to become a successful artist. Alexander and Ghebreyesus were married for 15 years and had two sons Solomon and Simon. While taking care of a family and writing poetry Alexander's critical work appeared in her essay collection, The Black Interior (2004). Although she is widely known for her poetry, she also writes short stories and many other types of literature. Her poems, short stories, and essays have been published in numerous high-end journals and periodicals: The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, The Washington Post, and many many more. Aside from these writing achievements Alexander's work has been anthologized in over 20 collections, and in May of '96, her verse play, Diva Studies, premiered at the Yale School of Drama. Elizabeth Alexander well known to the poets society becomes a world wide phenomenon at the presidential inauguration of Obama in January 2009 with the performance of her poem "Praise Song for the Day". Even with the recent fame she stayed devoted to her family and husband Ficre, not knowing that tragedy was only 3 short years away. In April 2012 while exercising on their family's treadmill, Ficre suffered from a heart attack and died, devastating Elizabeth and her two sons. Overwhelmed with the loss Alexander copes in the only way she knows, writing. She begins a memoir for her husband titled The Light of the World in which she dives into her sorrow and love for her recently deceased husband. April 15, 2015 The Light of The World was published and within the past week positive and heart felt reviews have been filling the Internet. Elizabeth now lives with her teenage sons Solomon and Simon and continues to write poetry.
poetry analysis:
Apollo
By: Elizabeth Alexander We pull off to a road shack in Massachusetts to watch men walk on the moon. We did the same thing for three two one blast off, and now we watch the same men bounce in and out of craters. I want a Coke and a hamburger. Because the men are walking on the moon which is now irrefutably not green, not cheese, not a shiny dime floating in a cold blue, the way I'd thought, the road shack people don't notice we are a black family not from there, the way it mostly goes. This talking through static, bounces in space- boots, tethered to cords is much stranger, stranger even than we are. |
The central idea of Apollo is that for that one day no one cared if you were black or white, and for that one day the world was focused on something bigger. The tone is optimistic, because Apollo gave Americans a glimpse of the future for peace between races. Racial barriers are broken because Americans as a whole feel proud and united due to the goals being accomplished, which is very apparent in the verses underlined. Within this poem she is a member of a black family that goes to a public area to watch the first two men walk on the moon. They aren't racially discriminated like they would have been, and I think this is important to convey. I read it as if I was the younger member of the family, and saw more of a contemplative and curious tone. Imagery is used often throughout this poem, which is important because when you are younger you tend to focus on the image more than the words spoken or the meaning behind events. This free verse is a form of enjambment, she doesn't punctuate so its to be read as more of a story, and she places periods at the intended points of emphasis. Apollo was not only the first time man walked on the moon, but the first time black men and white men walked together in solace.
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