Meet Amanda Gorman

When Amanda Gorman was named the first ever Youth Poet Laureate of the United States in 2017, I was thrilled! It's always wonderful to see poetry lifted up, especially with awards, but when it's a YOUTH Poet Laureate, well, that makes me VERY happy! I immediately tried to find out if she had published any books (she hadn't at that time) and if she might be available to be part of presentations I was planning-- including the Poetry Round Up at the Texas Library Association conference. Sadly, that never happened and I'm pretty sure it won't be happening now! ;-) 

Meanwhile, I learned that "the National Youth Poet Laureate program celebrates our nation's top youth poets that are committed to artistic excellence, civic  engagement, and social justice." It's a program of Urban Word, "an award-winning youth literary arts and youth development organization" based in both New York and Los Angeles. The program is supported by the Academy of American Poets, Poetry Society of America, the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Parks Service, Cave Canem, and many more. You can find more information here. The current National Poet Youth is 16 year-old Meera Dasgupta, from New York, chosen from among the Youth Poet Laureates from across the U.S. I was excited to see that my city, Dallas, has a Youth Poet Laureate program, so I need to check into that ASAP! 

On Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, all across the United States, people sat in rap attention as the first Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, delivered her original poem, "The Hill We Climb" at the Inauguration of President Joe Biden. IT WAS INCREDIBLE! Not only was her original poem fresh, powerful and engaging, but she delivered it was such confidence and panache, with expressive hands, a beautiful, glowing face, wearing a bright yellow coat and the pop of a red hand band in her hair wrapped high on her head. At age 22, she took her moment and soared and we all soared with her! If you missed it or simply want to experience it again, here's a recording of her reading.

Wow, right? I just love that a young person had this magical moment, a young Black woman lifted us all up and challenged us to be brave enough to see the light and BE the light!

I spent much of the day looking for the TEXT of the poem and finally found it available-- in several forms. I'm still not sure exactly how she intends the poem to look (in terms of spacing), but this is one version: 

A picture book version of her now-famous poem illustrated by Loren Long was set to be published in September, but just yesterday Penguin Random House revised their website to indicate it would be published in April instead, possibly NOT as a picture book. We'll see. 

Meanwhile, she does have a picture book illustrated by Loren Long due out in September entitled Change Sings: A Children's Anthem that is a call to activism. 

You can read more about Amanda, her life, her struggle with a speech impediment, and her activist views here and here. In addition, TONS of lesson plans have popped up online with ways to share and teach Amanda's powerful poem. I recommend beginning by watching Amanda perform it (multiple times) and soaking it up, because there is nothing quite like hearing the poet read her own work out loud-- and when it becomes a historic moment too, well, that's the power of poetry! 

See you over at poet Laura Shovan's blog for our Poetry Friday collective!