Posted on 01/22/2009
At first I wasn't going to go.  The cold.  Potential snow.  Below freezing.  And the horror of the massive crowds.  Yet late Monday afternoon I found myself on the Chinatown bus alongside the masses who descended upon Washington D.C. to watch our 44th President be inaugurated.  I was compelled- after watching the HBO broadcast of the pre-inaugural event on Sunday eve, with Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder (to which Obama nodded his head, on the 2 and 4 no less, and sang along), Usher and Garth Brooks, Beyonce and Bettye LaVette, all welcoming this new presidency- this new era- with such excitement and hope, I began to feel the pull drawing me south to be among the people, inside the mass hysteria, so I could feel it the way I saw the sprawl of people on the mall feeling it. Slowly Monday morning I watched as many of my friends and colleagues switched their Facebook statuses and their Twitter updates to "heading to DC" after having sworn off the trip, citing the cold and the crowds as their reason to defect from the journey that lay ahead.  They too couldn't resist the pull.  They knew that this day was somehow too important, a marker in our national history and consciousness, something worth braving the cold for.  Something worth standing in long lines and suffering the claustrophobia of the crowd for. 





Being there, on the mall in D.C., having walked from the great phallus of this nation that is the Washington monument (someday, perhaps, our collective endorsement of the Patriarchy will ebb) to the Capitol, felt like we "the people," en masse, actually mattered - that our voices had been heard (old and young and black and white and every in-between)! Here we all were celebrating our first black president and his beautiful family, and we had elected him, chosen him freely and fairly (unlike previously fraudulent elections)!  We rejoiced in the bitter cold as our noses ran and eyeballs teared.  But first we waited.  Yes, for hours.

Most awoke at 5 or 6 am (my crew made 6:14 after a few "snoozes").  We walked, and we stood, and we walked and were bumped and pushed as if in a tumbler. It would be the next day before we would learn of the fate of the pissed off Purple People.  Finally we claimed a small square of dusty land underneath the second Jumbotron screen on the west side of the mall.  We watched as senators and congressmen, figureheads and diplomats, ex-Presidents and their wives proceeded onto the landing of the Capitol.  The crowd cheered for some (The Clintons, Ted Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell) and were purposefully silent for others (George W., Dick Cheney).  We wondered about the conversation between Obama and GW on the ride over.  

Mz. Aretha Franklin absolutely killed it on "My Country Tis Of Thee" and Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriela Montero performed music by John Williams, delivering a devastatingly gorgeous piece entitled "Air and Simple Gifts."  Joe Biden and Barack Obama were then sworn in (Michelle held the Bible for Barack)!  Again, it would be the next day before we heard about the re-do.  I thought perhaps next time 'round they should swear on the Constitution instead and keep that whole separation of church and state thing a bit more clear.  Still, just after, the crowd broke into jubilant cheers.  We were all a part of that moment, together in a frozen lump of human sea.  Obama took the stage to speak.  Note to the producers: we are the so-called most powerful nation in the world, so I think it reasonable to expect the audio and the visual on the multi Jumbotron screens to be synced up.  It wasn't.  Not on one screen.  Very frustrating!  Otherwise, Obama’s speech, co-written by some 26-year-old genius with a dream job who makes me feel like I've done very little with my 31 years on this earth, was brilliantly delivered.  He spoke with elegance and grace, and he kept it very real.  His somber tone was no accident- Obama knows full well the state of this global economic crisis, the trials of war and unrest in the Middle East, and that we are in for some hard days ahead.  But he let his people know that he's prepared to lead, and to make the difficult decisions required to bring us out of this crash-landing afloat.  

The exit strategy from the mall felt akin to the current exit strategy for evacuating our troops from Iraq- i.e. nonexistent.  We were swept into a current with quite a strong undertow, pulling us this way and that with the exodus. At one point we found ourselves in the parking lot, and then trampling through some corporate hedges, the whole time shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors, trying to avoid being trampled.  Our feet were still ice cubes.  On the way out, amidst the madness, I bumped into Cody ChestnuTT.  He looked frozen in his corduroy jacket, but joyful in his spirit.  We hugged and shared a moment of disbelief at the occasion, and then I remembered his wonderful Afro-Beat tribute to Obama, “AfrObama.” The song ran through my head as we left the mall.

To avoid telling the insidious details of my party-chasing adventures, I'll hit you with the highlights (the Presidential ball!) and try to keep it light on the tedium. I should reveal that another minor reason I was hesitant to venture to D.C. was because my beloved Roots were off on tour in Japan and South Korea so there was no "built-in" party or DJ ?uesto gig which I was working.   Shout out to ?uesto on his BIRTHDAY!  I was left to fend for myself on the party front.  This left me with many options, none of which I really looked at until late Monday evening. After the lovely ride on the Chinatown bus (why do people think it’s okay to eat spicy garlic-riddled Kim chi on a public bus??) we arrived in the nation’s capital around midnight.  After chasing down the Common party (missed the performance, but saw Adam Blackstone - bass player extraordinaire for Jill Scott, Janet Jackson, and Kanye West) I got up with my Sutra/Tastecrew peeps, Ariel and Joey! They had some fresh house party going on so we showed up, shared a shot of whiskey, said hey to Amayo from Antibalas, and then headed in for the night for a hot two hour nap before our 6am lobby call for the Inauguration.

Fast forward to Tuesday night, and in a haze of Obamabliss we had no parties on lockdown, but a bunch of up-in-the-air options.  Suddenly none of those options mattered. Ariel hit me with a text: "y'all got dressy clothes?" I knew what this meant: she had scored tickets to one of the Presidential balls!!  We got dolled up (my outfit was enhanced by the Obama-head earrings I had purchased on the street that afternoon), and headed to the Metro.  Upon arriving at 7th and K street we saw the barricades which cordoned off the blocks surrounding the convention center.  Joey met us with the prized tickets (we still don’t know how Ariel hooked this one up… all we got out of Joey was “she’s a super-Jew, what can I say?”) and we made our way through various security check points to the gala.  Side note: the convention center looked like a large, heavily carpeted airport inside.  No ambiance whatsoever.  

As we descended the escalator into the Midwestern Ball we heard the announcer proclaim “We would like to welcome the President of the United States, Barack Obama!”  The room filled with wild cheers.  We couldn’t believe our luck as we sprinted toward the stage.  Obama was visiting our ball!  I was 50 feet away from our new President, the hope of the nation!!  He gave a short speech thanking the crowd, and then danced with Michelle to Etta James’ “At Last,” which the military band played live.  As they danced they whispered in each other’s ears.  The room was filled with so much love it was like when the care bears used to shoot hearts and rainbows out of their bellies. To an outsider it may have seemed sickening, but to the Americans who believe Obama can really help fix some of the overwhelming problems our country is facing, our first African-American President, a man who changed history forever with his election, it was a truly joyful celebration.  Let’s hope that our country will continue to show such support, and be prepared to sacrifice, contribute, and adjust once Mr. President begins making the “hard decisions” we all know lay ahead.

*Disclaimer: this blog was written on a blackberry on the Chinatown bus, on very few hours of sleep.  Please forgive any errors!

Below, watch Obama's Inaugural Address:


Obama's Inauguration Speech