Hip Hop Artists Are In the (White) House

On the campaign trail, President Barack Obama said that no one should graduate from university without having read poetry. He also promised that he would open up the White House to a wide range of people. Last night he made progress on both promises when the White House hosted a poetry slam (or more accurately, a poetry jam because it wasn’t a competition, but instead an open mic night that included slam poets, musicians and spoken-word artists. James Earl Jones read a piece and among the performers were two young spoken word poets from Youth Speaks, a non-profit organization in San Francisco for teens. One of the young poets, Joshua Brandon Bennett, joins The Takeaway to perform some of his poetry and talk about the experience. Also joining the conversation is Jeff Chang, journalist and author of Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop, the award-winning history of hip-hop.