Amanda Gorman wrote poems for historical occasions. Now she has made history herself.
Gorman, 22, became the youngest known introductory poet when she joined the 59th presidential inauguration on Wednesday.
She performed her original composition, “The Hill We Climb”, at the Capitol in front of President-elect Joe Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and the entire country.
“It’s amazing … Especially at my age. No one can really say, ‘At 22, I’m the introductory poet,'” Anthony Mason co-host Anthony Mason told CBS This Morning.
She said she heard the speeches of Abraham Lincoln and dr. Martin Luther King jr. Investigated when she started writing. But it was the riots at the Capitol that had the last impact.
‘And then on the Wednesday in which we revolt at the Capitol, it was the day that the poem really came alive. “I really put a pedal to the metal,” Gorman said.
Gordon said the riots changed her poem and the message she wanted to deliver.
“I wanted it to be a message of hope and unity. And I think Wednesday for me really just emphasized how much it is needed,” she said. “But not to keep the cracks that really need to be filled.”
Gorman is named the country’s first youth poet winner at the age of 19. At 16, she was a youth poet laureate from Los Angeles, where she was raised by Joan, a single mother and an English teacher. Gorman said writing is becoming her way of overcoming a frightening obstacle.
“I had a speech impediment. And so I could not use my voice, then I would write my voice on the page. So it was a sell-out for me and a lifeline,” she said.
Gorman said poetry and spoken words become her own kind of pathology.
“And as soon as I got to the point of my life in high school, I said, ‘You know what? Writing my poems on the page is not enough for me. I have to breathe them, and life. I had to execute them as I am. ” That was the moment I could grow past my speech impediment, ‘she said.
Gorman, who had particular problems with the letter “R”, used music as therapy.
‘My favorite thing to practice was the song Aaron Burr, Sir, from’ Hamilton ‘, because it’s full of R’s. And I said, ‘If I can keep up with Leslie in this track, I’m on my way to being able to say this R in a poem,’ ‘she said.
When Mason asks how she feels when she performs her poems, Gorman replies, “When I’m on stage, I feel electric. I feel like I can breathe fire … as if I’re calling not only the energy of myself, but of my ancestors not. “
“Poetry is a weapon. It is a tool for social change … and poetry is one of the most political arts out there, because it requires you to break and destabilize the language in which you work,” she said. continued. ‘Inherently you are pushing yourself against the status quo. And for me it always exists in the tradition of truth-telling. ‘
On Inauguration day, Gorman told her truth on the steps of the American Capitol. She told Mason that she was preparing for the big moment in the way she would prepare for any other performance.
“One of the preparations I always make when I perform is that I say a mantra to myself: ‘I am the daughter of black writers. We are descended from freedom fighters who broke through chains and changed the world. They call me “And that’s the way I prepare myself for the duty to be done.”
“Are you saying it in your head, or are you saying it out loud?” Ask Mason.
“If I can, and I will not scare anyone, I always say it out loud. So I’m usually in a bathroom or dressing room,” she said. ‘But when I perform behind the scenes and I think when I stand next to Joe Biden, I can keep it here [points at herself] do not worry about madness. I don ‘t want the secret service to think, you know, Amanda is gone … mayday, mayday, yeah no. ‘
Gorman said she fought her speech impediment all the way to college. She will study at Harvard University in 2020.
Gorman, who has performed five commissioned poems on ‘CBS This Morning’, has a children’s book expected to appear in September entitled ‘Change Sings’. The poet said she has a long-term plan to run for president in 2036.