Amanda Gorman Recites Her Poem "'The Hill We Climb "At The Biden-Harris Inauguration, January 20, 2021 (video & transcript)

WTVR CBS 6, January 20, 2021

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post provides some information about African American poet Amanda Gorman.

This post also showcases a video of Gorman reciting her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the United States inauguration for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, inspirational, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Amanda Gorman for sharing her creativity. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.

Congratulations to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and God bless America.

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INFORMATION ABOUT AMANDA GORMAN
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Gorman
"Amanda Gorman (born March 7, 1998) is an American poet and activist from Los Angeles, California.[1] Gorman's work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora.

Gorman published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015. In 2017, Gorman became the United States of America's first National Youth Poet Laureate.[2] She became the youngest poet to read at a presidential inauguration, reciting her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of Joe Biden in January 2021.[3]"...

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From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePiZc5yP7KA&ab_channel=CBSThisMorning "Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman’s history making performance" CBS This Morning, Jan 20, 2021
"Amanda Gorman was named the nation's First Youth Poet Laureate at 19. Now at 22, she is delivering her original composition, "The Hill We Climb" at the 59th presidential inauguration as the youngest known inaugural poet. Gorman, who has performed five commissioned poems for “CBS This Morning” in the past, tells Anthony Mason about writing a poem for this moment, her preparation for big performances and how poetry helped her overcome a speech impediment."

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TRANSCRIPT OF AMANDA GORMAN'S RECITATION AT THE INAUGURATION
From https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/amanda-gorman-inauguration-poem-transcript-the-hill-we-climb

At Joe Biden’s Inauguration, Amanda Gorman read the inauguration poem, “The Hill We Climb.” Read the transcript here.

 Amanda Gorman: (00:00)

Mr. President, Dr. Biden, Madam Vice President, Mr. Emhoff, Americans and the world, when day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry asea we must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace. In the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always justice. And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished. 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.

Amanda Gorman: (01:10)

And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true. That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped. That even as we tired, we tried that will forever be tied together victorious. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.

Amanda Gorman: (02:22)

Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid. If we’re to live up to her own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made. That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare. It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit. It’s the past we step into and how we repair it. We’ve seen a forest that would shatter our nation rather than share it. Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. This effort very nearly succeeded.

Amanda Gorman: (03:07)

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. This is the era of just redemption. We feared it at its inception. We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour, but within it, we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves so while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? Now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?

Amanda Gorman: (03:56)

We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be a country that is bruised, but whole, benevolent, but bold, fierce, and free. We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation. Our blunders become their burdens. But one thing is certain, if we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.

Amanda Gorman: (04:36)

So let us leave behind a country better than one we were left with. Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the West. We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the Lake Rim cities of the Midwestern states. We will rise from the sun-baked South. We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it."

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