22-year-old Amanda Gorman is now the youngest poet to recite her original poem at a presidential inauguration and the sixth poet to perform at an inauguration following in the footsteps of other great poets like Maya Angelou and Robert Frost.
This is not the first big stage that the Los Angeles native will share some of her works but it is certainly one of the biggest. President-elect Joe Biden’s wife, Jill Biden, is fond of Gorman’s works and she was the one who recommended Gordon for the recital.
The Harvard alum, who majored in sociology, wrote the inaugural poem ‘The Hill We Climb’ on January 6 after the riots at Capitol Hill. Although she was not given any guidelines as to what the contents of her poem should be, Gorman mentioned that she wrote them along the lines of American Unity which is synonymous with the theme for Biden’s inauguration, “America United”.
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According to NPR, the incident at Capitol Hill featured in the poem. In it, she writes: “We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
“And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, It can never be permanently defeated. In this truth, in this faith, we trust. For while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.”
Here are five facts you probably did not know about Gorman:
