Never Underestimate The Power Of A Girl & Her Pen
Amanda Gorman Photo by KELIA ANNE
I first became aware of Amanda Gorman in 2015 at a WriteGirl workshop. WriteGirl is an LA based non-profit organization — the brainchild of Keren Taylor who ran with a vision of pairing professional women writers with teenage girls to promote creativity, critical thinking and leadership. In Amanda’s case, I’d say it worked.
Hi Keren!
Amanda would not necessarily remember me, but I assure you, everyone remembers her. She was the young lady who read the poem entitled “I Can’t Breath” shortly after the death of Eric Garner. Certainly she wasn’t the only one to write a poem or a song with that title (H.E.R. comes to mind) but Amanda was 16 at the time…already hyper-aware and articulate.
Fast forward to Jan 20, 2021 when she became the youngest Inaugural Poet Laureate (at 22) to perform at a Swearing-In Ceremony (following in the footsteps of Robert Frost and Maya Angelou). Her piece “The Hill We Climb” spoke of unity, healing, hope and the new chapter of America. Dressed in the color of sunshine, she was prepared, poised, paced, polished, prophetic (I’m not alliterating on Purpose). I enjoyed the way she artfully and purposefully divided the word ‘po-em’ into two syllables as if to give poetry the levity it deserves. News anchor Nicole Wallace talked of her “architecture of words” and her ”beautiful mind.”
It’s not hard to imagine how Ms. Gorman would have found her way to that podium without a mentorship program in tow. Still, we can’t discount the support, value and nurturance of one. WriteGirl songwriting mentors work in groups and one on one with young writers to bring their lyrics to life. Even the shy and uneasy come out of their shell if they’re encouraged to express themselves — and when they’re assured that authenticity, no matter how simple, complicated or uncomfortable will resonate with masses. They tell the story. It’s our job to encourage them to trust themselves and then help them sprinkle that story with a little rhyme and repetition.
2016 In the company of mentors including Lisa Loeb, Jill Sobule, Louise Goffin, Kay Hanley, Holly Palmer, Michelle Lewis, Eleni Mandel, Courtney Harrell, Heidi Rojas, Erika Nuri Taylor, Janice Robinson, Lori Geltman, Nina Woodford-Wells
Amanda has spoken candidly about how she prepared for Inauguration Day and how she overcame a speech impediment, a challenge she shares with the President. She has aspirations of being the President someday. Actually, she knows the exact year — 2036 because that will be the election year she’ll be old enough to run. I don’t think that’s ‘cute’ at all. I can totally envision her on that podium again in a different capacity.
Although this piece shines a light on Ms. Gorman, I believe WriteGirl — whose motto is “Never underestimate the power of a girl and her pen“ — plays a significant role in her journey. Perhaps you have a daughter, a grand-daughter, a niece, a neighbor who loves expressing herself in words. Lord knows with all the ‘likes’ and ‘ums’ overtaking conversation, the brevity of messaging, not to mention the vanishing of punctuation we could use all the young poet laureates we can get.
Oh and…Michelle Lewis, one of the coordinators of the program, reminds me that part of the WriteGirl mission is to make it possible for all the participants to go to college. So far the mission has held.
Wouldn’t you like to open the door for a future Amanda Gorman? Of course you would. 😬
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“There is light if only we are brave enough to see it ... if only we are brave enough to be it.”
I do believe she is living by her own words.
If you missed her performance…here she is…