Where is the love? By: Brynne Mayne
Like one of the most influential people in Elizabeth Alexander’s life (Martin Luther King Jr.), she too has a dream. Alexander has a dream the King’s legacy will live on for years to come, and it is through love that this is possible. “I’m talking about the kind of love that takes work, but leads us to where we’re trying to get today” Alexander says.
On Monday, Elizabeth Alexander, inauguration poet, and chair of African American studies at Yale University, gave a moving speech at the Martin Luther King Convocation at Wittenberg University.
Alexander spoke to a diverse audience with personal stories as well as relatable events. “I was at the march on Washington” Alexander explains. “I was also in a baby carriage!” She explained that her parents described the infamous “I Have a Dream” speech an event that they “had to go to.”
Alexander told the audience of a candy dish that sat in her house while she was growing up. The dish was full of political buttons. She said that she vividly remembered King’s button. “It was a black hand shaking a white hand” she describes. Her father wore that same button to Obama’s inauguration.
It was that button and the memories of her past that reminded her of the importance of equality. “Once people had that [equality] so much more would take care of itself.”
“It is love that says we will do better” Alexander says. She explained that love is not only a deep emotion, but a component in the pieces that make the world go round.
While quoting June Jordan, Alexander was tugged in the direction of her specialty: poetry. Poetry is something that Alexander and Jordan have in common. “Poetry is sacred speech that makes the sacred in our lives” Alexander states.
“What if the mightiest word is love?” Alexander asks in her poem “Praise Song for the Day.” Alexander concluded reading this poem, receiving a standing ovation.
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