Helen Kauder, Key Jo Lee, Kathryn Kaelin, Kristin Graves, Lily Sawyer-Kaplan, Lulu Chua-Rubenfeld, Heather Vermuelen, Kenny Rivera, and Ronny Quevedo helped me immeasurably with bringing Ficre’s artwork into the world and keeping it protected. Key Jo Lee, especially, entered the world of what Ficre saw head-first and lovingly catalogued and cared for the work. Her contribution was epic, as well as exquisitely professional.
My neighbors were true, especially Mike and Stephanie O’Malley, Martha Venter, Inderpal Grewel and Alfred Jessell, Heather Gerken and David Simon, Owen and Irene Fiss, Karin Render, and Thach Pham. The entire community at St. Thomas’s Day School under the leadership of Fred Acquavita rallied around us, even though my sons had graduated from the school. At Hopkins School I would like to especially thank Errol Saunders for his ongoing kindness and understanding, as well as Michael Van Leesten and Lisa McGrath, and JoAnn Wich, who taught my sons to open their mouths and make a joyful noise.
For my family of friends who have loved and cared for us in a million ways: Alondra Nelson, Farah Griffin and Obery Hendricks, Miriam Gohara and Marcus McFerren, Tracey Meares, Jason Moran and Alicia Hall-Moran, Kellie Jones, Guthrie Ramsey, and Hettie Jones, James Forman and Ify Nwokoye, Kica Matos and Henry Fernandez, Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld, Anne Higonnet and John Geanakoplos, Michael Kaplan and Susan Sawyer, Geraldine and Suzanne Artis, Amy Cappellazzo and Joanne Rosen, Mona and Rashid Khalidi, Ann Marie and David Wilkins, John Gennari and Emily Bernard, Cindy Carter Cole, Kate and Gerald Chertavian, Jennifer DeVere Brody, Anna Deavere Smith, Darryk Floyd, Robin Coste Lewis, Esther Fein, Hilton Als. I could not begin to list all you have done for us. I cherish you as family.
A few friends in my community of writers have been particularly constructive and encouraging. Thank you to Nicky Dawidoff, Hilton Als, Kevin Young, Terrance Hayes, and Caryl Phillips. As they say, all faults contained here are my own.
Thanks to the Provost’s office at Yale University for the sabbatical year in which this book was written, to Louise Mirrer at the New York Historical Society for providing me a workspace, and to Valerie Paley there for welcoming me. Thanks also to my colleague David Blight who insisted I have, and helped me find, this “room of one’s own.”
Faith Childs has been my agent since my first book of poems was published in 1990. She has been a steadfast champion of my work through thick and thin and has guided and supported my career for now three decades with brilliant professionalism. For this book, she was more intimately involved than ever before; I needed her there at every step and borrowed her stability and calm when the writing—and the journey to get to it—was especially difficult and dark. Thank you, Faith.
Gretchen Young, Jamie Raab, and Deb Futter at Grand Central envisioned this book before I did, dared to ask for it, and have fully supported and encouraged it all the way. This book truly would not have existed without Grand Central, and I am proud and grateful to be published here.
More gratitude for Gretchen Young, an editor of my dreams, wise and patient, laser-clear, whose steadfast support and uncanny understanding of this book brought me all the way to the finish line.
If I have neglected to mention anyone, please forgive my lapse. The bounty of help I accepted over this period is without measure, and sometimes help made its way through a thick fog. There is so much love and generosity in the world.
Finally, to Solomon Kebede Ghebreyesus and Simon Alexander Ghebreyesus, whose character, heart, resilience, courage, and humor leave me awe-struck. Their love makes me whole. Their constant encouragement enabled me to write and finish this book, and I thank them for allowing me to write about them, and about our precious, private family life. They carry the exquisite best of their father. For you, Solo and Simon, I reserve my most profound and undying gratitude. Of course, my darlings, this book is for you.
About the Author
ELIZABETH ALEXANDER is the author of six books of poetry, including American Sublime, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and two collections of essays, The Black Interior and Power and Possibility. She is the first winner of the Jackson Prize for Poetry, an Anisfield-Wolf lifetime achievement awardee, and a National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim fellow. Alexander composed and recited “Praise Song for the Day” for the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama. Currently Elizabeth Alexander teaches literature and culture at Yale University, where she is the Thomas E. Donnelley Professor of African American Studies.
Essays
The Black Interior
Power and Possibility: Essays, Reviews, and Interviews
Reading Group Guide
1. The memoir opens with the narrator saying that, “Perhaps tragedies are only tragedies in the presence of love, which confers meaning to loss. Loss is not felt in the absence of love.” Do you agree with this statement? Can you imagine a tragedy without love? Would you describe this book first as a memoir about loss or about love?