What’s really funny about being National Youth Poet Laureate is that not everyone even knows it exists.
AMANDA GORMANWhat’s really funny about being National Youth Poet Laureate is that not everyone even knows it exists.
AMANDA GORMANOne of my delays was in speech and speech pronunciation, and also the auditory processing issue just means I really struggle as an auditory learner.
AMANDA GORMANI love Black poets. I love that as a Black girl, I get to participate in that legacy. So that’s Yusef Komunyakaa, Sonia Sanchez, Tracy K. Smith, Phillis Wheatley.
AMANDA GORMANI am the daughter of Black writers who are descended from Freedom Fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.
AMANDA GORMANI was writing since I can remember – I just didn’t know it was poetry yet, or that writing could be a career.
AMANDA GORMANWhat contributed to my writing early on is how my mom encouraged it. She kept the TV off because she wanted my siblings and I to be engaged and active. So we made forts, put on plays, musicals, and I wrote like crazy.
AMANDA GORMANI did a lot of sitting back and thinking about what I wanted for myself and what I wanted for my country: more unity, more support for the arts and more opportunities for young writers from marginalized groups.
AMANDA GORMANBut as for the future, I foresee a world which is more creative, more open, more loving, more ecologically friendly, more honest about its history and progress, and I think a lot of those contributions will be made by young people.
AMANDA GORMANWhenever I listen to songs, I rewrite them in my head.
AMANDA GORMANThrough poetry we shall catch the conscience of a nation.
AMANDA GORMANI don’t want it to be something that becomes a cage, where to be a successful Black girl, you have to be Amanda Gorman and go to Harvard. I want someone to eventually disrupt the model I have established.
AMANDA GORMANThat’s kind of the challenging thing about writing an inaugural poem. You’re speaking to everyone, but you don’t also want to speak for everyone.
AMANDA GORMANI close my eyes and I am with this army of young women standing in a line and I imagine us walking forward together.
AMANDA GORMANI am my own best mirror.
AMANDA GORMANSee the line where the sky meets the sea.
AMANDA GORMANYour daily challenge to not be like a boss, but the boss, in all things you.
AMANDA GORMAN