Rapper appears at White House evening poetry event, sidelined during afternoon session

In an afternoon session, first lady Michelle Obama had welcomed various poets to the White House poetry event, but notably ignored the rapper, whose stage-name is Common. ... Common was introduced at the evening session without any reference to the conservatives' derision of his poetry or to some police advocates' dismay.... [CONSERVATIVES? SOME POLICE?] The president could not easily walk away from the rapper for fear of offending vital supporters in the African-American community, and he could not afford to fully embrace the rapper at this evening's event because that endorsement risks the president's effort to portray himself as a post-racial healer of social divisions....