Damn, I Would Have Wanted to Be There

...James Earl Jones, in that voice that could make a phone-book reading sound like Shakespeare, performed from the tragedy "Othello," towering over the lectern, raising his arms, casting his eyes on the audience as he evoked Othello the Moor of Venice and his torment. Obama sat at a center table next to his mother-in-law, Marian Robinson. Director Spike Lee watched from a table up front. The room was still.

Two jazz musicians, acoustic bassist Esperanza Spalding and pianist Eric Lewis (a.k.a. ELEW), opened the show with a funky arrangement by Lewis titled "Love Letters." Filling the room with a lovely melody, they played as if the White House were a blues joint. Later, Spalding performed "Tell Him," delivering lush vocals as she plucked her bass.

The jam featured young, rising stars in theater, jazz and spoken-word poetry in addition to established actors and writers. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon stood onstage with his wife, "Bad Mother" essayist Ayelet Waldman. They talked about the power of words....