J-Speaks: The Spoken Word of the Future At The Inaugural

 

The Inauguration of the 46^th President of the United States of America in Joseph R. Biden and our first woman, African American, South Asian, and Historically Black College/University graduate Kamala Harris on Capitol Hill on Wednesday was a special one. From the 21-minute speech Mr. Biden gave to the entertainment by chart toppings singers in Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, and Garth Brooks. It was the elegant, and dynamic poem of a young, poised, and elegant young lady that had everyone talking, even three former Presidents and their spouses afterwards.

The first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman announced herself to the nation and the world on Wednesday’s Inauguration of Mr. Biden and Mrs. Harris as she captured the nation with her powerful poem she wrote called, “The Hill We Climb.”

It is rare that someone so young and unknown to the public can be the person who captured the attention of many that watched something so important and remarkable as Wednesday’s Inaugural address was, especially when you have Lady Gaga singing the Star-Spangled Banner in her signature, show stopping way. To Jennifer Lopez, who performed a medley of “America the Beautiful,” “This Land is Your Land,” and recited the pledge of allegiance in Spanish. Country music star Garth Brooks did an acapella version of “Amazing Grace.”

Overnight, many more stars of the music industry from Justin Timberlake, Kate Perry, Jon Bon Jovi, and John Legend put on a virtual cross-country celebration as they continued theme of the Biden Presidency of hope and unity.

It was no surprise that these greats of music and entertainment brought their absolute best to a moment that we all have craved and wanted for four years, in particular with how the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, the social injustice, and partisan division has brought us to.

What really made the nation take a pause though were the captivating and moving words from a 22-year-old American Poet in and activist Amanda Gorman from Los Angeles, CA, who became the youngest Inaugural Poet in U.S. history. Her words were not only powerful but made everyone from three former President on hand in Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama and their spouses in Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, and Michelle Obama.

The great gift our nation got a chance to see Gorman came because our nation’s First Lady Dr. Jill Biden’s team reached out to ask her to take part in the Inauguration.

Gorman told ABC News’ “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts on Thursday during a virtual interview about being asked by the Presidential Inaugural Committee that she was “overjoyed,” “grateful,” and “shocked.”

She added that being expected that they would trust her with this great honor of performing a poem to the nation and the world.

“I was also daunted at the same time,” Gorman said to Roberts. “I was honestly scared of writing such a poem. I wasn’t sure I could do it justice. But I’m so glad I put best foot forward and did it.”

Mr. Obama praised Gorman’s poem, Tweeting @BarackObama, which included a section from her poem saying, “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.”

Mrs. Clinton, the former Secretary of State under Mr. Obama Tweeted @HillaryClinton, “Wasn’t @TheAmandaGorman’s poem just stunning? She’s promised to run for President in 2036 and I for one can’t wait.”

Comedian and co-host of CBS’s “The Talk” Sheryl Underwood said that Gorman’s performance was the example of someone with “presence.”

Fellow co-host and New York Times best-selling author Elaine Welteroth said what we saw from Gorman was the best example of “Black Girl Magic.”

“It just reminded of me, that the power of the youth,” Welteroth added. “Her optimism and her hope feels so pure, and so sincere.”

In a time where we hear a lot about hope, equality, togetherness, and unity, it is something that is heard many times from golden age folks, and politicians, who are the reason along with many others we are in the mess we are in today. There messages of optimism can at times be dry, and eyerolling.

When Gorman exquisitely in her poem referenced hope, change, and togetherness, it made someone like Welteroth feel hopeful.

“She makes you believe it. She makes you believe it,” Underwood said.

Perhaps the most powerful part of her poem referenced the main history maker that was not too far from her left in now Vice President Harris when she said, “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.”

“Being an American is more than a pride we inherit. It’s the past we step into and how we repair it,” Gorman said on what it means to be a citizen of this nation and what it will take to repair the wounds that currently exist.

“We’ve braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace. And the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always justice,” she said in reference to staying silent when something is not right.

“Somehow, we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken. But simply unfinished,” Gorman said when it comes to describing where our nation has been and needs to get to.

Those powerful words among others from the Harvard University graduate said to the audience on hand and those watching across the globe put Gorman in the company of other prestigious poets like Robert Frost and the legendary Maya Angelou.

What makes what Gorman did even more incredible is that she has an auditory processing disorder; is hypersensitive to sound; and has a speech impediment since childhood, just like President Biden, whose speech impediment is that he stutters.

Gorman’s speech impediment is that for many years she dropped several letters that she could not say for years. The sound of the letter was one letter specifically Gorman said to Roberts that it took until two years ago for her to say.

That meant she could not say words like her last name or even the thing that she has become well known for, poetry.

“It is something that I had to really work at it, and practice to get to where I am today,” Gorman said.

It was clear she showed that she had put a lot of practice to being able to sound out words that contained letter R like rise, which was in her poem five times.

For Gorman, she said saying rise was a “full circle” moment for her because if she had written that poem in her final year as a teenager being able to say a word like rise would not had been possible.

“It was, you know, me rising I think as well as the country at that time,” she said.

Along with being able to on the same stage as the new President and Vice President, and three former leaders of the free world and their spouses, Gorman got to meet Lady Gaga, and had a chance to take a picture with her, saying of how much fan she is of her, “I’m gaga for Gaga literally.”

“We kind of just flew to each other like magnets after the ceremony,” she said about meeting her idol. “And then we we’re just both crying and just hugging, and it was just such a great moment because what she does with music I aspire to be with the poetry. So, it was great to kind of have that woman-to-woman comradery.”

As special as it was to meet face-to-face with Lady Gaga, Gorman got the opportunity to meet, all be it virtually with another big name in the entertainment world in actor, singer, composer, producer, and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, who congratulated Gorman on the reading of her powerful poem on Wednesday.

The creator and star of the Broadway hit “Hamilton” told Gorman that when something has the “right words in the right order can change the world.” She had the right words at that right moment that changed the world with her brilliant piece.

Miranda also said to Gorman that he was so “incredibly” proud of her and is looking forward to seeing what she writes next, and hopes she continues to change the world “one word at a time.”

Another thing that gave Gorman comfort to as Miranda put it “smashed” her poem was she had a ring on her right index finger that was given to her by the queen of television herself Oprah Winfrey.

Gorman said to Roberts that Ms. Winfrey wrote to her once, and they both have kept in touch.

Ms. Winfrey once told Gorman that she bought Maya Angelou’s coat and gloves when she performed at the Inauguration of Mr. Clinton back in 1993. She wanted to continue that tradition and bought Gorman a ring that was a replica of a caged bird inside.

For Gorman, the ring symbolized her idol in Ms. Angelou, who wrote the great autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” and was a way for her to feel like she had Ms. Angelou close to her. Ms. Winfrey also bought Gorman earrings as well.

“She was so generous in making sure I felt prepared both emotionally and fashionably for the moment.”

Gorman was halfway through writing her poem for the Inauguration two weeks ago when that group of rioters, who were staunched supporters of now former President Donald Trump stormed Capitol Hill.

She decided to use her poem to address that horrific moment in the history of our nation head on, finishing her poem that evening of Jan. 6.

“We’ve seen a forest that would shatter a nation, rather than share it,” Gorman said of that horrible moment. “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.”

Gorman concluded her poem put a reflection on the gravity of the moment saying, “As 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.”   

On Wednesday, our nation witnessed history. We saw what we hope is the start of a new era of unity, inclusion, and togetherness with the swearing in of former Vice President and longtime Senator Joseph R. Biden (D-DE) as our 46^th President of the United States and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first woman to be elected to the second highest federal office in the nation. We saw performances from some of the best in music who sang about the hopefulness of a not just a new President and Vice President, but a Democratic U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

The lasting impression on this day where history was made came from a young 22-year-old woman from the same state that produced Vice President Harris, who planted her flag in our nation’s capital first at the Historically Black College Howard University left a lasting message for us all.

A message that many people will have significant chance of hearing as she is set to author three upcoming books, which include “Change Sings.”

A message that she hopes to tell a much bigger audience on the National Mall when she runs for President in 2036.

As Roberts put it to Gorman saying a message her mother once told her growing up that we all have gifts, and we have to all discover ours and share it with the world.

Gorman, who once could not sound out words that had the letter R in them, shared her gift to the nation and the world on Wednesday, and those in attendance at the U.S. Capitol and that watched across the globe saw it, and as Roberts put it, “We will not be the same because of it.”

When asked if she will run for President then by Roberts, Gorman said, “Heck yeah.”

Information, and quotations are courtesy of 1/21/2021 7 a.m. ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” with Robin Roberts, Michael Strahan, George Stephanopoulos, and Ginger Zee, with report from T.J. Holmes; 1/21/2021 2 p.m. CBS’s “The Talk” with Carrie Ann Inaba, Sheryl Underwood, Elaine Welteroth, Sharon Osbourne, and Amanda Kloots; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Welteroth; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin-Manuel_Miranda; and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Gorman.