What is a National Youth Poet Laureate? It makes sense that many people don’t know how to answer this question, as Amanda Gorman is the first. Most of us probably heard her name for the first time at President Biden’s inauguration as she swept America off its feet with the reading of her original poem, “The Hill We Climb.” However, the poetry world has known her for much longer. Gorman was named the first national youth poet laureate at just 19 at a historic ceremony at Gracie Mansion in 2017. The unprecedented title honors a teen poet who demonstrates not only extraordinary literary talent but also a proven record of community engagement and youth leadership.
The Harvard freshman was well aware that poetry and civic outreach are intertwined and used her writing to build confidence and a sense of community among young people whose voices are often underrepresented in mainstream dialogue. She founded One Pen One Page in 2016, a nonprofit organization that provides creative writing programs and an online platform for student storytellers to make their mark on the world. Her own writing usually addresses the intersections of race, feminism, and adolescence, as well as the changing landscape of her native Los Angeles.
The now 22-year-old woman was the youngest inaugural poet ever in the United States. She joined a group of poets who had been recruited to help mark a presidential inauguration in the past, including Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, and Miller Williams. But none of her predecessors faced quite the challenge that Gorman did. At a time when Americans were - and still are - staggering from a deadly pandemic and political violence, she worked to write a poem that would not only inspire hope but foster a sense of collective purpose in a country that has been moving backward for four years. In fact, it was the infamous storming of the Capitol that served as Gorman’s final force to finishing her work. She added verses about the apocalyptic scene that day:
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.
When Biden’s inaugural committee contacted Gorman in December, she wasn’t given any explicit guidelines about what to write. The theme for the inauguration was “America United,” which Gorman had already wanted to emphasize in her work. However, along with introducing a new beginning for our country, she felt the poem needed to acknowledge the dark chapter of American history we are all living through. She began the writing process with research, taking inspiration from the speeches of American leaders who tried to bring everyone together during times of intense division, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. What she ended up creating was an impossibly harmonious blend of grief, horror, hope, and unity, that was all sealed with a breath of joy. After four years during which language was debased, Gorman offered lucidity. Her poem blended the political and the personal. She wrote of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
Descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
Can dream of becoming president
Only to find herself reciting for one.
Amanda Gorman is the symbol of hope we should all take into the next four years. As someone who overcame a speech impediment, the descendent of slaves who would have been prosecuted for reading and writing, she is an example for everyone that pursuing a passion and refusing to give up can get you as far as you can dream. Now, Gorman is the first poet ever to have performed for the Super Bowl. With two books coming out in September and endless change to make, Amanda Gorman is an inspirational, motivational force to be reckoned with.