If you don't know who Amanda Gorman is tonight, you certainly will tomorrow. She is an American poet and activist from Los Angeles, California, whose work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora.
In 2014, she was named the Youth Poet Laureate for Los Angeles. In 2015, she published a book of poetry, The One For Whom Food Is Not Enough, at the age of 17. Gorman, now 22, is the first person ever to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. Her children's book, Change Sings, releases in 2021.
Tomorrow, she will also be the youngest poet ever to read a poem at a presidential inauguration. Recommended to the Biden inaugural committee by Dr. Jill Biden, in late December she was asked to write an original poem for the occasion. Gorman will perform "The Hill We Climb," which she says she completed after the events of January 6th.
Another interesting detail about her that gives her something in common with the incoming President is that she has had to overcome a speech impediment. She had difficulty saying certain letters of the alphabet—the letter R was especially tough—which caused her to have to constantly "self-edit and self-police."
"I'd want to say 'girls can change the world,' but I cannot say so many letters in that statement, so I'd say things like 'young women can shape the globe.' instead."
Here is my poor attempt to capture her likeness. The quote is from a speech she gave, and begins: "A girl who dreams to be the first in her line to go to school is the most vivid of things—like the one red spark that stands up to the sky in a chorus of wet logs." Tomorrow, Amanda will be that one red spark.
Daler Rowney inks, pencil, Uniball pen, Signo white gel pen, watercolor, on 140-lb. cold-press Fluid watercolor paper, 7x10 inches.
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