Amanda Gorman’s Black Girl Magic was on full display during Wednesday’s (Jan. 21) Inauguration. The 22-year-old poet stole the show as she blessed the country and Inaugural stage with insightful words of hope from her poem she finished after the US Capitol Insurrection on Jan. 6. The poem is entitled: “The Hill We Climb.”
“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 find herself reciting for one,” she stated in one of the poem’s most powerful stanzas.
Gorman garnered praise from President Barack Obama, Oprah, and the millions of others who tuned in. Both President Obama and Winfrey took to her Twitter to applaud Gorman for her poem.
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“On a day for the history books, @TheAmandaGorman delivered a poem that more than met the moment. Young people like her are proof that there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it; if only we’re brave enough to be it.”
“I have never been prouder to see another young woman rise! Brava Brava @TheAmandaGorman! Man Angelou is cheering- and so am I,” tweeted Oprah.
Wednesday’s (Jan. 21) Inauguration was the first time Gorman had performed one of her pieces for a televised audience. According to the NY Times, Gorman was halfway through the poem when the Capitol Riots occurred. That night she stayed awake to finish what we know as “The Hill We Climb.”
Yesterday’s Inauguration will be marked as a historic day for a number of reasons, and Amanda Gorman is one of them. She joints a short list of Presidential Inauguration poets including the late great Maya Angelou and Robert Frost.