WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama has invited writers and musicians to perform in what is being billed as the first White House poetry party.

Consolidating his reputation for cool after his performance as a stand-up comic on Saturday night, Obama has invited poets and writers, backed by jazz musicians, to perform in the East Room tonight.

According to The Guardian, it was originally billed as a poetry slam but the White House later corrected this, saying that a slam is a competition, which the president’s party was not. It was a jam.

Obama promised on the campaign trail that if he was elected, he would throw the White House open to as wide a range of people as possible. Tonight is intended as part of that.

But it is also because Obama is fond of poetry. He said on the campaign trail no one should graduate from university without having read poetry and has been spotted with a copy works from the Nobel Prize-winning poet Derek Walcott in his back pocket.

Two poems, Pop and Underground, by the president published in the literary magazine Feast in 1981 surfaced last year.

Since becoming president, the Obamas, who are often seen at theatre and concert halls round Washington much more than the Bushes, have hosted a series of cultural events at the White House. (ANI)