Amanda Gorman
America’s First-Ever National Youth Poet Laureate
Amanda Gorman reciting “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021. Sales of the eponymous book featuring the poem broke records, as the keepsake edition of The Hill We Climb enjoyed the biggest week one sales of any poetry title published before. Photo courtesy of Chris Kleponis / CNP / ABACA / Reuters.
At a mere 22 years old, Amanda Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet in history when she was chosen by an inaugural committee to recite “The Hill We Climb” on January 20, 2021, during President Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony. But Amanda is no stranger to the limelight. She became the first Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles in 2014, and in 2017, she became the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate in the U.S.
Among her many accomplishments, Amanda Gordon was honored by Time magazine, which listed her among the 2021 members of Time100 Next, which spotlights 100 rising stars whose efforts are shaping the future of business, politics, science, entertainment, sports, health, and more. It is an expansion of the Time 100 list. Image courtesy of Time.com.
Before she stood at the Presidential podium on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol and read a poem for which she received national acclaim, Amanda had been in the public eye and rubbed shoulders with several public figures. In 2017, she introduced Hillary Clinton at a leadership awards gala. And while Michelle Obama was still First Lady, she recognized Amanda as a spoken word ambassador. Amanda was also interviewed by Oprah Winfrey on Zoom in 2020.
The Los Angeles Board of Library Commissioners honored Amanda with a special resolution and she was presented with an Outstanding Community Service Award by the City of Los Angeles. Her leadership was also recognized by the California State Assembly and mayor's office. She wrote the manifesto for Nike’s 2020 Black History Month campaign, and her work has been featured in TheNew York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Elle.com, and The Huffington Post. She also received recognition from Scholastic, Inc. and the National YoungArts Foundation.
Portrait of Amanda Gorman during an interview with Oprah Winfrey. Illustrated by Daniel J. Middleton.
Amanda S.C. Gorman was born in Los Angeles, California on March 7, 1998. She has two siblings, including a twin sister named Gabrielle. All three were raised by a single mother, Joan Wicks, who taught 6th-grade English. Amanda began to write at a young age, and despite the speech impediment she developed in childhood and the auditory processing disorder she suffers—as well as her hypersensitivity to sound—she refined her literary voice over time and managed to express it with aplomb. Amanda studied sociology at Harvard, where she faced adversity from white classmates, one of whom—as she revealed in The Harvard Crimson—accused her of being “too strong and too self-assured.” Aside from those experiences, Amanda considers her time at Harvard “an amazing privilege.” While a high school senior, she was awarded the Milken Family Foundation college scholarship.
.@TheAmandaGorman is our May cover star!
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) April 7, 2021
Poet, activist, optimist, style icon—Gorman has become so much more than a literary star. Meet the phenomenon in the making: https://t.co/7Zkxcy0i4q pic.twitter.com/mbjacqdlOt
Amanda also made history by being the first poet to grace the cover of Vogue, on not one, but two covers simultaneously!
After reading her poem before an international audience, Amanda became an overnight success. Her Instagram following swelled, and she enjoyed enormous presales of her three books released in 2021. She became the first poet in history to be invited to read during a Super Bowl, which draws an audience of close to a billion fans. She also signed a modeling contract with IMG Models for brand endorsements and opportunities related to fashion. This is feasible given the fact that, as The Guardian reports:
“The red satin Prada headband she wore during the inauguration ceremony led to the item selling out, while her yellow coat (also Prada) caused searches for ‘yellow coats’ to increase 1,328% (according to fashion search engine Lyst) in the wake of her appearance.”
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This article appears in 21st Century Black Changemakers.
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Ida B. Wells was an unsung early civil rights leader, suffragist, researcher, and journalist who used her pen in ways that are yet to be rivaled.