Poetry and spoken word at The White House, minus Green Eggs and Ham

When The White House invited James Earl Jones to perform poetry for An Evening of Poetry, Music, and Spoken Word earlier this year, his first instinct was to go for either Dr. Seuss or Shakespeare. Knowing that he could never top Jesse Jackson's rendition of Green Eggs and Ham, he settled for Othello.

Other clips from the same evening are available on The White House's Music and The Arts channel and include a performance by Brave New Voices slam champion Jamaica Osorio, spoken word artist Maya del Valle, and Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman on the power of words.