Amanda Gorman

Brooklyn College Academy 2022 Black History Month Honoree for Literature

Who is Amanda Gorman? Her words have won her invitations to the Obama White House and to perform for Lin-Manuel Miranda, Al Gore, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, and others. Amanda has performed multiple commissioned poems for CBS This Morning and she has spoken at events and venues across the country, including the Library of Congress and Lincoln Center.

She has received a Genius Grant from OZY Media, and recognition from Scholastic Inc., YoungArts, the Glamour magazine College Women of the Year Awards, and the Webby Awards. She has written for the New York Times newsletter The Edit and penned the manifesto for Nike's 2020 Black History Month campaign. All these accomplishments and she is only 23.

Amanda Gorman is an American poet and activist. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, marginalization, and the African diaspora. Amanda Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015.

Amanda Gorman was selected by President Biden to read her original poem “The Hill We Climb” for his Inauguration on January 20, 2021, making her the youngest poet to have served in this role. She also is the first poet commissioned to write a poem to be read at the Super Bowl. Her poem honors three individuals for their essential work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, and an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she studied Sociology. She has written for the New York Times and has three books forthcoming with Penguin Random House.

Joan Wicks, her single mother, a 6th-grade English teacher in Watts, raised Amanda Gorman with her two siblings in Los Angeles, California. Her twin sister, Gabrielle, is an activist and filmmaker. Amanda Gorman has said she grew up in an environment with limited television access. She has described her young self as a "weird child" who enjoyed reading and writing and was encouraged by her mother.

Amanda Gorman has an auditory processing disorder and is hypersensitive to sound. She also had a speech impediment during childhood. Gorman participated in speech therapy during her childhood. Amanda Gorman told The Harvard Gazette, "I always saw my speech impediment as a strength because since I was experiencing these obstacles in terms of my auditory and vocal skills, I became really good at reading and writing.

In 2021, Amanda Gorman told CBS This Morning co-host Anthony Mason that she used songs as a form of speech therapy, and explained, "My favorite thing to practice was the song 'Aaron Burr, Sir,' from Hamilton because it is jam-packed with R's. And I said, 'if I can keep up with Leslie in this track, then I am on my way to being able to say this R in a poem."

Amanda Gorman attended New Roads, a private school in Santa Monica, for grades K–12. As a senior, she received a Milken Family Foundation college scholarship. She studied sociology at Harvard College, graduating cum laude in 2020 as a member of Phi Beta

In 2016, Amanda Gorman founded the nonprofit organization One Pen One Page, a youth writing and leadership program.

Amanda Gorman said she intends to run for president in 2036. She stated "Seeing the ways that I as a young black woman can inspire people is something I want to continue in politics. I don't want to just speak works; I want to turn them into realities and actions.