Amanda Gorman is about to make history at the 2021 presidential inauguration ceremony on Wednesday (January 20).
The 22-year-old poet will become the youngest inaugural poet in United States history, delivering an original poem in honor of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
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Amanda is the daughter of a Los Angeles teacher, and has written for events like the Fourth of July celebration with the Boston Pops Orchestra and the inauguration of president Larry Bacow at Harvard University, where she went to school and majored in sociology.
She’s also performed for Lin-Manuel Miranda, Al Gore and Hillary Clinton in the past.
Amanda told the Associated Press she was contacted by the Biden inaugural committee back in December, and that future first lady Jill Biden was the one who recommended her.
She will be following in the tradition such as renowned poets like Robert Frost and Maya Angelou.
Back in 2014, Amanda Gorman was named the first Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles and then became the country’s first National Youth Poet Laureate.
“The way I describe it is kind of like being mayor and then senator and then president of youth poetry, basically,” she told Kelly Clarkson.
She also has a children’s book coming out later this year called Change Sings, and also hosted a PBS special for kids about racism in October.
She told AP she was not given specific instructions on what to write for the inauguration, but that she was encouraged to emphasize unity and hope over “denigrating anyone” or declaring “ding, dong, the witch is dead” over the departure of President Donald Trump. The inaugural poem is called “The Hill We Climb.”
“The poem isn’t blind. It isn’t turning your back to the evidence of discord and division,” she told the outlet.
