A Way With Words

Amanda Gorman is the country’s first National Youth Poet Laureate. 
She read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the presidential inauguration. That was on January 20. Soon after, it was announced that she’d be reading at the Super Bowl. Former First Lady Michelle Obama (above) heard Gorman speak at the inauguration. Here, she interviews the 22-year-old poet.

I was moved as I watched you read your poem. How did you prepare yourself for that moment?

Everything was moving so quickly. I didn’t get to really sit down with the text until the night before. There was a lot of the night-before performing in the mirror.

You have a mantra you recite to yourself before performing. Can you share it?

It’s inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s lyrics in Moana, in “Song of the Ancestors.” That song goes: “I’m the daughter of the village chief / We’re descended × descend WILLIAM WHITEHURST—GETTY IMAGES to originate; to be born (from) (verb) Marcus descends from a royal family. from voyagers who made their way across the world.” Something like that. I wanted something that I could repeat because I get so terrified whenever I perform. So my mantra is: “I’m the daughter of Black writers who are descended from freedom fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.”

“The Hill We Climb” mentions your being a descendant of slaves. What role does poetry have to play in helping you make sense of our history?

Poetry is the lens we use to interrogate the history we stand on and the future we stand for. It’s no coincidence that at the base of the Statue of Liberty, there is a poem. Our instinct is to turn to poetry when we’re looking to communicate a spirit that is larger than ourselves.

What was your experience of the inauguration? Were you able to listen? Or were you just focused on what you came to do?

I was living in two spheres of my mind. There was the “Wow. Joe Biden’s speech was amazing. Lady Gaga just killed it.” But at the same time, 66% of my brain was dedicated to questions: “How am I going to get up to the podium without tripping? My hands are cold. Am I going to be able to flip these pages because my fingers are going numb?”

People know you as something of a prodigy × prodigy DEAGOSTINI/GETTY IMAGES an extremely talented young person (noun) Mozart was a prodigy who composed music at an early age. —a poet who set the country on fire.

I want to highlight that this took a lifetime. Something I haven’t told anyone else is, for the past six years, whenever I’ve written a poem that I knew was going to be public or performed, I told myself, “Write the inauguration poem.” And what that meant for me is: Write a poem that is worthy of a new chapter in the country. Write something that is brave enough to be hopeful.

As you know, I have two daughters around your age. What does sisterhood mean to you and your twin?

As twins, we’re pretty dissimilar. But what bonds us isn’t our personalities. It’s our values. We’ve been raised like you, by a strong Black woman who taught us to value our ideas and our voices.

Do you have any advice for young girls who earn their way into the spotlight?

I would say to anyone who finds themselves suddenly visible and suddenly famous: Think about the big picture. You have to crown yourself with the belief that what I’m about and what I’m here for is way beyond this moment. I’m learning that I am not lightning that strikes once. I am the hurricane that comes every single year. And you can expect to see me again soon.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.