We are striving to forge our union with purpose. But this doesn’t mean we’re striving to form a union that is perfect. When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade The loss we carry. “And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine. Here is the text of Gorman’s poem, The Hill We Climb, in full. While Biden’s theme for the inauguration was unity, Gorman gave it more weight with her poem. “I don’t want to say that my poem took a drastic left turn, because it was already going towards a location, but those events just solidified for me how important it was to have a poem about unity and the new chapter of America in this inauguration,” she told the NewsHour. On Java 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman became the youngest person to ever read at a presidential inauguration. 6, she was about halfway through her poem. When the pro-Trump insurrectionists attacked the U.S.

The Los Angeles native told the PBS NewsHour days before the ceremony that she started writing the new poem in early January, shortly after being invited to present an inauguration poem. Gorman, describing herself, nodded to the fact that 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.”

WATCH: Poet Amanda Gorman on how she prepared for Inauguration Day Of this group of esteemed poets, Gorman is the youngest in recent memory to read a poem on Inauguration Day. The 22-year-old poet was the latest to follow in a tradition of poets - including Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, Elizabeth Alexander, and Richard Blanco - who have read for incoming Democratic presidents.

Capitol, which two weeks ago was attacked by a largely white pro-Trump mob, and reminded us that “Somehow, we’ve weathered and witnessed / A nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.” It’s a landmark literary moment, to be sure - and one infused with a contemporary freshness and colour the world so needs today.Amanda Gorman opened her inauguration poem, “The Hill We Climb,” with a question.Īddressing newly sworn in President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, those of us watching, and the world, she said:

Her performance is being hailed by trailblazing Black women, including Michelle Obama, Stacey Abrams and Oprah Winfrey, who invokes the memory of the great American poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou in praising Gorman, signalling the magnitude of the legacy and torch the young poet is taking up. The full transcript of Gorman’s poem can be read here, and it’s smashing. Instead Gorman tackled the ugliness of racism head on, in a modern lyrical masterpiece that fuses free verse with spoken word, winding the listener through ancient and recent horrors to conclude on a hopeful call to action: Following the historic swearing in of Kamala Harris as the first woman and woman of colour to the role of Vice President of the United States, Gorman’s poem, entitled ‘The Hill We Climb’, did not gloss over the glaring racial tensions making Democrat Joe Biden’s inauguration so crucial.

The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman