[News] Inauguration Day: Watch poet laureate Amanda Gorman's stirring reading

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Inauguration Day: Watch poet laureate Amanda Gorman's stirring reading
"There is always a light, if only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it."

"History has its eyes on us." Amanda Gorman, US youth poet laureate, read her poem The Hill We Climb during Wednesday's inaugural ceremonies, evoking powerful messages of hope and unity as President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were sworn in. 

The Hill We Climb reads, in part: "We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, It can never be permanently defeated. In this truth, in this faith, we trust. For while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us."

Only a few poets have performed at previous US inaugurations. Former US presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy are the only presidents who had poems read at their swearing-in ceremonies. 

The Los Angeles-based Gorman, 22, was the first to be named national youth poet laureate. She's also the youngest inaugural poet in US history. She's an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of Harvard University, who's written for The New York Times and has two upcoming books. 

Gorman also celebrated diversity in her poem: "We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to be reciting for one." 

When writing The Hill We Climb, Gorman says she reviewed speeches by US President Abraham Lincoln, abolitionist Frederick Douglass and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., but also was inspired by poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou.

Gorman was inspired as well by the Tony Award-winning hip-hop musical Hamilton, a modern retelling of US founding father Alexander Hamilton's journey created by composer, playwright, performer and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda.