American Blue

<p>Elizabeth Alexander read the inaugural poem for President Barack Obama in January 2009. Her work has been inspired by a wide range of influence from history literature art and music to the 'rich infinity' of the African-American experience. Hers is a vital and vivid poetic voice on race gender politics and motherhood. <em>American Blue </em>was her first British publication.</p><p></p><p>Many of her poems bring history alive and singing into the present in highly musical sharply contemporary narratives which use many different forms and voices to cover subjects ranging from slave rebellions the Civil Rights movement Muhammed Ali and Toni Morrison to the lives of jazz musicians and the 'Venus Hottentot' a 19th-century African woman exhibited at carnivals.</p>