The inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris was a star-studded event, but for many, it was Amanda Gorman who stole the show. The 22-year-old made history as the youngest person to ever read at a presidential inauguration — but it’s her powerful words that have everyone talking. The National Youth Poet Laureate read her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” which calls for unity and hope as we begin a new presidency. She captured our — and the nation’s — attention today, but this is only the beginning of the incredible future Gorman has.
Speaking with The New York Times, Gorman said the inaugural event is “probably one of the most important things I’ll ever do in my career.” Additionally, she explained that she was still in the process of writing it when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. It was the horrific event that shaped what she wanted the message of her poem to capture.
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“[W]hat 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,” Gorman told the outlet. “It’s doing that in a way that is not erasing or neglecting the harsh truths I think America needs to reconcile with.”
In perhaps the most touching line of her poem she says, “We’ve braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace. In the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always justice. And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it.”
Naturally, we’re on the lookout for more of her work — and we’re in luck, because she has a children’s book coming out this fall titled Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem — and you can pre-order it now.
This is definitely a book we can’t wait to read with our little ones, and we have a feeling it will be incredibly inspiring — we’d expect nothing less after today!
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