Amanda Gorman

American poet

• Born: March 7, 1998
• Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California

Biography

Amanda Gorman is an American poet. She had become widely published and praised by her teens, winning many awards and scholarships. Major public figures including President Barack Obama invited her to present her work at functions. In 2017, she became the first National Youth Poet Laureate. On January 6, 2021, Gorman became the youngest poet to read work at a presidential inauguration when she was invited to perform at the ceremony for President Joe Biden.

Gorman was born on March 7, 1998, in Los Angeles, California. She has a twin sister, Gabrielle. Their mother, Joan Wicks, was a single mother and a middle-school English teacher. Gorman attended the New Roads School in Santa Monica, California. She then proceeded to Harvard University, where she studied sociology and graduated cum laude in 2020. Meanwhile, her sister became involved in activism and is interested in film.

As a young girl, Amanda Gorman had a hearing problem that affected her speech, particularly her pronunciation of the letter “r.” She struggled with speaking and self-consciousness until, in the third grade, she found a new outlet for her feelings: poetry. She also began reading poems and found inspiration in the work of Maya Angelou. Gorman used poetry to express her beliefs about the world. She felt that poems could promote hope and justice.

When she was sixteen, Gorman started a group called One Pen One Page that encouraged young people to write poetry. She was soon winning acclaim and awards for her own work as well. In high school, she became Youth Poet Laureate for Los Angeles. Later, she was upgraded to Youth Poet Laureate of the West. In 2017, First Lady Michelle Obama created a new designation of National Youth Poet Laureate. Gorman was also awarded that inaugural title.

In 2015, Gorman published her first collection: The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough. This is to be followed by a collection titled The Hill We Climb, scheduled for September 2021. In addition, Gorman has co-created a children’s book with illustrator Loren Long called Change Sings, also slated for September 2021.

Even in her teens, Gorman had become a public figure. Political leaders including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Al Gore invited her to perform at various functions. Activist Malala Yousafzai and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda have also enjoyed her performances. Gorman spoke on CBS and at the Lincoln Center and Library of Congress. She won a variety of scholarships and awards.

Her highest-profile appearance, however, came during the January 6, 2021, inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden had invited Gorman to read a poem during the ceremony, making her the youngest poet to speak at an inauguration. Gorman wrote a new poem for the event called “The Hill We Climb” that dealt with the state of the country and hope for a bright future.

Gorman assembled the poem in parts to avoid being overwhelmed by the duty. She was still writing it during the widespread tensions and uprising at the Capitol that occurred during Biden’s confirmation. Gorman revised some lines to touch upon the shocking episode. However, she did not address it directly, but rather focused more on the path to healing and unity.

In February 2021, Gorman became the first poet to perform at the Super Bowl, reciting the original poem "Chorus of the Captains" before the introduction of the game's three honorary captains at the Super Bowl LV. That year, she also published a poetry collection entitled Call Us What We Carry. In 2023, a Spanish translation of the collection was published. The audio version of the collection was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album.

Throughout the remainder of 2021, Gorman continued to take on a number of high-profile roles. In addition to becoming the first poet to be featured in Vogue magazine in May of that year, she also co-hosted the 2021 MET Gala in September. She also used her poetry to respond to a number of social justice issues. In May 2022, following a deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, she used `her Twitter account to call for action on gun control and also published a poem, "Hymn for the Hurting."

Gorman published her second children's book, Something, Someday, in 2023. In 2024, she was a speaker at the Democratic National Convention.

Major Works

Amanda Gorman's first poetry collection, The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough was published in 2015. In 2021, she published the poetry collections The Hill We Climb and Call Us What We Carry, as well as the lyrical children’s book Change Sings. She published Something, Someday, another children's book, in 2023. Her most well-known poem is “The Hill We Climb,” the work she presented at Biden’s inauguration ceremony. Gorman’s writing is known to deal with her perceptions of important social topics in the past, present, and future of the United States.

Like much of modern literature, her poems extensively consider issues such as race, gender, and social justice. However, Gorman also reaches beyond those points to consider a world of greater unity, compassion, and cooperation. She portrays the United States as both a land of tension and division and unlimited future promise for all people and tries to envision a bridge to that improved state. She acknowledges problems but also bright spots and sees time for hope as well as time for sorrow.

In her inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb,” Gorman paints America in the modern era of strife as “a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.” She points to herself as “a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother” now being able to speak before a president and look forward to the prospect of her own potentially bright political career in the future. In this, Gorman says, the United States is still in the imperfect and sometimes chaotic process of becoming what it is destined to be, “a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man.” The poem continues to say that the nation grows and learns even during its many struggles.

In a call for unity and togetherness, rare in the divisive twenty-first century, Gorman writes that “we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.” As part of building a vision of all-American unity, she praises the beauty and diversity of the country, in its landforms, climates, and cultures, and ends with a plea for all people to be brave enough to do the right thing.

Bibliography

“Amanda Gorman.” Amanda Gorman Website, www.theamandagorman.com. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

“Amanda Gorman.” Milken Scholars, 2021, www.milkenscholars.org/scholars/directory/profile/amanda-gorman. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

“Amanda Gorman.” Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/amanda-gorman. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

Deng, Jireh. "Amanda Gorman: America's Future Tense." Los Angeles Times, 2 June 2024, www.latimes.com/l-a-influential/story/2024-06-02/amanda-gorman-poet. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.

Sager, Jessica. “Meet the Poet Who Stole the Show at the 2021 Inauguration, Amanda Gorman, and See Her Stirring Performance.” Parade, 20 Jan. 2021, parade.com/1152221/jessicasager/amanda-gorman-inauguration-poem-transcript-video/. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.