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On 2/6/09, Elizabeth Alexander came to the Dalton school and talked about her poetry and read some of her poems as well. She talked about the Amistad and read some of her Amistad poems. She lived near the New Haven Green and always wondered about what happened in the past here. She did some research and found out that the Amistad captives exercised there when they were prisoners. That inspired her to write an epic about Amistad. Shortly after that she broke it up in to shorter poems. 

Next, she talked about a book called Miss Crandell’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color that she and another poet wrote.  It was a book  of poems that was about Miss Crandell’s school.  Ms. Crandell was a white, Quaker teacher.  She taught white kids.  Although African American girls were allowed to come, no one came.  One day, a black girl came to school . The white parents chose to take their white children out of the school because they didn’t want to be taught with African American people.  After that, many black children came to the school.  The town’s people got mad and started doing horrible things to the school.  For example, they poisoned the well with cow dung, they killed the school pet and left it on the the front steps of the school and they also burned down the school.  The people kept coming, they didn’t give up.  For example, when they needed water in the winter, they’d get the snow from outside, they put it in buckets, they brought it inside, warmed it up and then cooled it down.  These are examples of the kinds of events Elizabeth Alexander would write about. 

Her most exciting moment was when she got a call three weeks prior to the innauguration to write a poem.  She didn’t have a lot of time to prepare.  The world would be watching.  She finished a few days before.  When she practiced, she cried because it was so emotional.  She was able to invite a person on stage.  She chose her father because he was involved in the civil rights movement her whole life.  He was actually at the March on Washington.  He wore a pin at the march that had a black hand and a white hand shaking which had three words on it…job, peace, hope.  He wore that same pin on the  day of the inauguration.