Poetry Jam At The White House

As part of her remarks introducing the first ever White House Poetry Jam, Michelle Obama said of democracy, "It has room for lots of voices, which sometimes take us out of our comfort zones, but that's what makes it so meaningful." One could say the same thing about poetry, and the art's big tent was certainly on display Tuesday night at an event that placed spoken word poets alongside a reading from Othello.

The great James Earl Jones read the Shakespeare monologue, but the slam poetry was performed by three relative unknowns: Mayda Del Valle, a native of Obama's hometown of Chicago; and two finalists in HBO's Brave New Voices Spoken Word Poetry competition: Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio and Joshua Brandon Bennett (HBO will be rebroadcasting the event).