22 Year Old Amanda Gorman Makes History As The Youngest Inaugural Poet
Amanda Gorman made history today as the youngest inaugural poet in United States history.
The 22 year old Los Angeles-born writer and performer read her own poem “The Hill We Climb” today at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
“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,” she said in an interview with 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.”
Gorman shared that Biden’s inaugural committee contacted Gorman late last month about reading something at the inauguration after Jill Biden saw a reading she gave at the Library of Congress.
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The Los Angeles native told NPR she finished writing the poem, titled “The Hill We Climb,” on the night of Jan. 6, hours after rioters took part in a siege on Capitol Hill.
Gorman published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015. In 2017, Gorman became the first National Youth Poet Laureate in the United States. Just like Biden she over came a childhood speech impediment.
Watch Amanda Gorman read “The Hill We Climb” at Biden’s inauguration below.
“We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one…There is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it—if only we’re brave enough to be it.”
Amanda Gorman makes history as youngest poet in recent history to read at a presidential inauguration: https://t.co/qjeUynJUdz pic.twitter.com/1p73XcyI3q
— ABC News (@ABC) January 20, 2021
