Amanda Gorman is only the sixth and the youngest poet to ever perform at a United States presidential inauguration.
Ms. Gorman, 22, graced the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the US Capitol in Washington on Wednesday January 20, where she recited her poem, The Hill We Climb.
She was born and raised in Los Angeles by her mum, a middle school teacher, and her two siblings.
Ms. Gorman who has had a speech impediment since childhood studied sociology at Harvard, and became a youth delegate for the United Nations at 16.
She is also America’s first-ever national youth poet laureate (2017).
Later this year, Viking Books for Young Readers will publish Gorman’s debut poetry collection, also titled The Hill We Climb, targeting teenage and adult readers.
Poetry aside, she says that she has bigger plans for the future, as she told The New York Times back in 2017, she intends to run for president in 2036.
Ms. Gorman has performed for luminaries including Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Yousafzai.
Her reading during Biden’s inauguration was widely praised. Oprah Winfrey couldn’t hide her pride as she tweeted “I never been prouder to see another young woman rise.”
Former First Lady Michelle Obama also praised Gorman urging her to “keep shinning” and that she “can’t wait to see what you do next.”
She performed alongside entertainment big shots including Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga at the inauguration that was themed – America United.
As a poet performing at a presidential inauguration, Gorman joined the likes of Elizabeth Alexander who performed at Pres. Barack Obama’s inauguration, and Maya Angelou who read at Pres. Bill Clinton’s inauguration.
Robert Frost was the first inaugural poet when he read at Pres. John F Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961.
Here’s the full text of Ms Gorman's poem at Biden’s presidential inauguration:
When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade We’ve braved the belly of the beast We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace And the norms and notions of what just is Isn’t always just-ice And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it Somehow we do it Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished We the successors 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 And yes we are far from polished far from pristine but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect We are striving to forge a union with purpose To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another We seek harm to none and harmony for all Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: That even as we grieved, we grew That even as we hurt, we hoped That even as we tired, we tried That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious Not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again sow division Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree And no one shall make them afraid If we’re to live up to our own time Then victory won’t lie in the blade But in all the bridges we’ve made That is the promise to glade The hill we climb If only we dare It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it 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 In this truth in this faith we trust For while we have our eyes on the future history has its eyes on us This is the era of just redemption We feared at its inception We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour but within it we found the power to author a new chapter To offer hope and laughter to ourselves So while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? Now we assert How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us? We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be A country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation Our blunders become their burdens But one thing is certain: If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left with Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west, we will rise from the windswept northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states, we will rise from the sunbaked south We will rebuild, reconcile and recover and every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful will emerge, battered and beautiful When day comes we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid The new dawn blooms as we free it For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it If only we’re brave enough to be it