January 21, 2009

Can scarcely type for shivering, having just come in from the cold, from a Titus rehearsal made exhausting by too many directors.

The Inauguration is still the talk of friends and airways. For ths first time since Clinton I can bear to think about politics. For the first time since Bobby Kennedy I am joyful about politics.

Inaugural Poets was a triumph last night. Cantaria was excellent; the Dead Poets were sublime; the Provost was inspiring; the featured poets were each worth a listen, and most of us considerably more than that. I haven’t been thanked so much in recent memory. It was a good thing, and I am happy to have done it. Our little voices sounded at the opening of an age.



IN CELEBRATION OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BARACK OBAMA.

The Inaugural Poets


Humanities Lecture Hall, UNCA
7:30
January 20, 2009
UNCA


House Music by GREENWAY (Tom Dolce, CoCo Palmer-Dolce, Wind Motika)

Greetings from Walt Whitman

Greetings from the City of Asheville: Robin Cape, Asheville City Councilwoman

Greetings from Jane Fernandes, UNCA Provost

Inaugural Poem by Rick Chess

Inaugural Poem by Sebastian Matthews

Inaugural Poem by Ann Dunn

Music by CANTARIA, the men’s chorus of Asheville, directed by Michael Porter

Inaugural Poem by Gary Hawkins

Inaugural Poem by David Hopes

Inaugural Poem by Allan Wolf

Music and Poetry by THE DEAD POETS (Allan Wolf, Tom Tracy, Alex Alford)

Inaugural Poem by Glenis Redmond

Inaugural Poem by Gary Ettari

Inaugural Poem by Laura Hope-Gill

Valediction: Stephanie Hickling, "Lift Every Voice and Sing” by James Wheldon
Johnson



With special thanks to Asheville Public Radio, WCQS


When I came home tonight, a big opossum was on the back stoop. I took him by surprise, and he was the perfect picture of indecision, not knowing whether to run or to freeze. I said, “Sweetheart, I have to get to the door. You’re all right. It’s all right.” My voice seemed to unfreeze him, and he scuttled off the stoop to the edge of the light, where he turned and watched me disappear into the house. Such pity I felt for a creature cold and stupid and frightened in the great cold dark of the world. Heaped my cats’ dish with food, in case that would somehow even things out. Threw cat food onto the front porch, on the off-chance he would waddle around the house and find it there.