Dear Kids and All Readers,
During the January 20th Inauguration ceremony, I, along with others worldwide, were captivated by a twenty-two-year-old woman named Amanda Gorman when she gave a dramatic recitation of her poem, “The Hill We Climb.” It contains themes of grief, pain, labor, hope, healing, transcendence, and unity.
Ms. Gorman is the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate and the youngest to read a poem at a presidential inauguration. Dr. Biden discovered Gorman when the poet did a reading recently at the Library of Congress.
Gorman referenced herself in her poem as “a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother.” She has shared elsewhere that she suffered a speech impediment as a child but learned to “dream big.”
As a result of her now-famous, televised appearance on the Inauguration platform, Gorman has earned two book deals! Her collection of poems, The Hill We Climb, and her picture book, Change Sings, will be published on September 21, 2021, by Viking Books.
Awesome. You go, Girl!
So, get a clue, kids and all readers. If you missed Ms. Gorman’s memorable poetic reading, or if you’d like to hear it again, please click on this link.
