Twenty-two year old Amanda Gorman is the youngest known poet to ever perform at a presidential inauguration – just another first in a long line of ones that should’ve come so much sooner than today. Amanda became the first National Youth Poet Laureate while studying sociology at Harvard, which followed her crowning at the age of 16 as Los Angeles’s Youth Poet Laureate.
According to the BBC, Amanda completed her poem, The Hill We Climb, on January 6th – the day a horde of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol. She told the publication she hoped the piece would “speak to the moment” and “do this time justice,” and I don’t think she could have done a better job. Her reading was a masterpiece, focusing on the need to forge unity between and end the divisiveness of the American people.
It’s difficult to pick out just a few lines as the best, but here are eight that resonated with us.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-