When you have to teach yourself how to say sounds, when you have to be highly concerned about pronunciation, it gives you a certain awareness of sonics, of the auditory experience.
AMANDA GORMANWhen you have to teach yourself how to say sounds, when you have to be highly concerned about pronunciation, it gives you a certain awareness of sonics, of the auditory experience.
AMANDA GORMANI am my own best mirror.
AMANDA GORMANMy mom wanted to make sure I was prepared to grow up with Black skin in America.
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 GORMANWhenever I listen to songs, I rewrite them in my head.
AMANDA GORMANGive us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights.
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 GORMANWhat’s really funny about being National Youth Poet Laureate is that not everyone even knows it exists.
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 GORMANI was born early, along with my twin, and a lot of times, for infants, that can lead to learning delays.
AMANDA GORMANWriting wasn’t just a form of expression. It was a form of pathology by embarking on spoken word over and over and over again and reciting my poems.
AMANDA GORMANIt wasn’t until I was named Youth Poet Laureate of L.A. in high school though that I officially began calling myself a poet. I just always loved writing, period.
AMANDA GORMANMy Instagram doesn’t cover my insecurities, my lack of self-confidence, that week I spent crying, there’s a question of whether I should be sharing that online.
AMANDA GORMANWe’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace and the norms and notions of what just is, isn’t always justice.
AMANDA GORMANI have to interweave my poetry with purpose. For me, that purpose is to help people, and to shed a light on issues that have far too long been in the darkness.
AMANDA GORMANPoetry has never been the language of barriers, it’s always been the language of bridges.
AMANDA GORMAN