A Conversation with Elizabeth Alexander
October 21, 2015
This fall, poet, essayist and critic Elizabeth Alexander was named Columbia’s Wun Tsun Tam Mellon Professor in the Humanities. Her best-selling memoir recalls the life and sudden death of her husband Ficre Ghebreyesus, who arrived in New Haven as a refugee from Eritrea. In conversation with Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, Alexander - who read at President Obama's 2009 inauguration - discussed writing about loss, love and and upheavals both private and public.