22-Year-Old Poet And Author Amanda Gorman To Read At Biden Inauguration

22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman will read an original poem, "The Hill We Club," at the January 20 ... [+] GETTY IMAGES FOR TOGETHER LIVE

22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman will read her original poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday, January 20. Gorman told the Associated Press she was contacted in late December about appearing at the event, where Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez will also perform. The AP reported, “Gorman says the inaugural officials told her she had been recommended by the incoming first lady, Jill Biden.” According to the AP, Gorman said she “was not given specific instructions on what to write, but was encouraged to emphasize unity and hope over ‘denigrating anyone’ or declaring ‘ding, dong, the witch is dead’ over the departure of President Donald Trump.”

In an Instagram post on Thursday, Gorman wrote, “WHAT AN HONOR to be the Inaugural Poet of 2021. I am so excited to be joining our next President and Vice President @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris for #Inauguration2021!” The image and caption directed readers to the official inauguration website, bideninaugural.org.

Gorman, who lives in Los Angeles and graduated from Harvard in 2020, was named the National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. According to her website, Gorman “began writing at a few years of age,” and has racked up an impressive list of accomplishments since then, including being invited “to the Obama White House and to perform for Lin-Manuel Miranda, Al Gore, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, and others.”

Her debut picture book Change Sings, illustrated by Loren Long and aimed at children ages four through eight, will be published by Viking Books for Young Readers on September 21; it was part of a two-book deal. The publisher’s description of the 32-page book touts its “lyrical text and rhythmic illustrations that build to a dazzling crescendo” and reads in part: “As a young girl leads a cast of characters on a musical journey, they learn that they have the power to make changes—big or small—in the world, in their communities, and in most importantly, in themselves.”

In February 2020, Gorman participated in the LOFTimist campaign for fashion retailer LOFT and said, “It wasn't until I was in third grade and had an English teacher who was a published author that I realized that could actually be a career for a woman, and not just a secret hobby.”

Of her training in poetry, Gorman told The Bucknellian in January 2020 she’s never taken a formal poetry workshop, but did take a creative writing class in high school and creative writing workshops with the organization Write Girl.

In an undated interview with The Harvard Advocate, Gorman said she never envisioned poetry as her future career, saying, “I started off writing short stories and fiction, and thought those were going to be the things that I did! In fact, I went to a showcase/open mic, and read a [non-poetry] piece that I wrote and the audience loved it! People walked up to me after the fact and told me that I wrote such a beautiful poem [laughs] and that I gave a great [spoken word] performance.”

Gorman follows in the footsteps of poets such as Maya Angelou, who wrote the poem “On the Pulse of Morning,” for the 1993 inauguration of President Bill Clinton, which the AP notes went on to sell over 1 million copies when Random House published it as a book. The audio recording by Angelou also won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

On Angelou’s passing in 2014 while he served as Vice President, Joe Biden issued a statement that read in part, “She was not only a recorder of history, but she was the conscience of a movement that pushed the country forward. Jill and I were honored to have met her and learned from her.”

by Rachel Kramer Bussel