Who is Amanda Gorman, Biden’s inauguration poet?
Updated Jan 20, 2021;
Posted Jan 20, 2021
Poet Amanda Gorman recites a poem during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington for President Joe Biden, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP)AP
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NEW YORK (AP) At age 22, poet Amanda Gorman, chosen to read at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, already has a history of writing for official occasions.
“I have kind of stumbled upon this genre. It’s been something I find a lot of emotional reward in, writing something I can make people feel touched by, even if it’s just for a night,” says Gorman. The Los Angeles resident has written for everything from a July 4 celebration featuring the Boston Pops Orchestra to the inauguration at Harvard University, her alma mater, of school president Larry Bacow.
The 22-year-old composed a poem, "The Hill We Climb," that acknowledges the recent insurrection attempt, but turns resolutely toward hope. "The new dawn blooms," she writes.
While we have our eyes on the future, history has our eyes on us, Gorman said on stage. This is the era of just redemption.
Gorman continues a tradition for Democratic presidents that includes such celebrated poets as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. The latter s “On the Pulse of Morning, written for the 1993 inauguration of President Bill Clinton, went on to sell more than 1 million copies when published in book form. Recent readers include poets Elizabeth Alexander and Richard Blanco.
Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in memory, and she has made news before. In 2014, she was named the first Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, and three years later she became the country s first National Youth Poet Laureate. She has appeared on MTV; written a tribute to Black athletes for Nike; and has a two-book deal with Viking Children s Books. The first work, the picture book “Change Sings, comes out later this year.
Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman summoned images dire and triumphant Wednesday as she called out to the world “even as we grieved, we grew” in her poem “The Hill We Climb.”.