So many smiles, teary eyes, and teachable moments were captured in the music, poem, prayers, and remarks of our 44th President’s inauguration, and now it’s all on the Web for classrooms and family discussions. Within minutes of President Obama finishing his inaugural address, it was up on YouTube, with its full text printable at Time.com. Here’s video of poet and Yale professor Elizabeth Alexander reading her inaugural poem “Praise Song for the Day,” as well as the full text at NowPublic.com and a Q&A with her at Time. Don’t miss Aretha Franklin and John Williams’s composition played by Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill, and Gabriela Montero on YouTube with Chinese subtitles and on Breitbart.tv (looks like NBC footage). Because stories are powerful teachers, here’s “One’s family’s long road [from Selma, Ala.] to the Obama inauguration” in the Christian Science Monitor, with its subhead: “Frankie Hutchins, whose grandmother was born into slavery, saw her mother fight for voting rights. She attended a white school” and today her children saw and heard the first black president. Finally, it seems fitting to include Rev. Joseph Lowery’s inaugural benediction on video at YouTube.
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