Arts
Amanda Gorman: Giving voice to her vision for a country that can still heal
Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman delivered an inauguration poem on January 20, from the steps of the United States Capitol which powerfully captured the national mood. Titled “The Hill We Climb,” the piece was written specifically for the inauguration of the new President of the United States, Joe Biden.
“In my poem, I’m not going to in any way gloss over what we’ve seen over the past few weeks and, dare I say, the past few years. But what I really aspire to do in the poem is to be able to use my words to envision a way in which our country can still come together and can still heal,” Gorman told The New York Times. “It’s doing that in a way that is not erasing or neglecting the harsh truths I think America needs to reconcile with.”
Amanda Gorman
Now 22 years old, West L.A.-raised Gorman was named Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles at the age of 16. At 19, while in college at Harvard, she was named the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate. She was contacted in late December about appearing at the Inauguration. While she had never previously met with anyone from the incoming president’s team, First Lady Jill Biden recalled seeing a reading Gorman had delivered at the Library of Congress, and suggested her for the ceremony.
“The theme for the inauguration in its entirety is ‘America United,’ so when I heard that was their vision, that made it very easy for me to say, great, that’s also what I wanted to write about in my poem, about America united, about a new chapter in our country,” Gorman told the Times. “There is space for grief and horror and hope and unity, and I also hope that there is a breath for joy in the poem, because I do think we have a lot to celebrate at this inauguration.”
Poets have appeared at the inaugurations of just four U.S. presidents. Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Miller Williams, Elizabeth Alexander, and Richard Blanco, have filled the role before Gorman.
This September, Viking Books is set to publish Gorman’s first poetry collection.