Why Amanda Gorman’s presidential inaugural address reminds us of the power of poetry

Youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman at last week’s US presidential inauguration. Image: Shutterstock

At last week’s US presidential inauguration, the youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman recited The Hill We Climb, a poem she had written in response to the election and the Capitol riots. The world was watching, and it was met with widespread acclaim.

An award-winning poet from Manchester Metropolitan and the director of Manchester Poetry Library reflect on Gorman’s performance and the power of poetry in times of crisis and renewal.

By Malika Booker, Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan and winner of the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem 2020

Poetry is rooted in an oral tradition as an expression of and for the people. It also has the power to heal and transform. Poets attempt to use language to tap into the emotional truth, capture it and transform. This tapping into the psyche is its superhero power and is the reason why people turn to poetry in dark times. 

Amanda Gorman had a difficult brief to transform a site of civil unrest that rocked the world, raise up the bruises fracturing the nation - both historic and contemporary - with and in a universal language that also uplifts and provides hope as well as appeal to the masses. This is no easy brief, yet it is the role of the ceremonial poem.

Gorman rose to the occasion. Her performance was spellbinding, compelling and poised. Her language gracious in direct contrast to the actions of the outgoing president. Her appearance youthful on a stage with aged statesmen and women.

She drew on the oratory tradition of Martin Luther King and the poetry of another inauguration poet Maya Angelou, as well as that lyrical masterpiece - biblical scripture - to create a speech poem brimming with illusion, symbols and hope. 

In Britain last year, poetry was cut from our school curriculum to national uproar around questions about its role and why our young people need to learn poetry representing the multicultural nation that is Britain.

Gorman cites falling in love with poetry in the classroom as the place where her love of the artform began. A love that would enable her to become America's first National Youth Poet Laureate and stand on the stage reciting her poem 'The Hill We Climb' following in the footsteps of her poetic idol Dr Angelou.

She values the power of poetry and knows there is a foundation in mentoring and facilitating poets (also unlike our educational system). A fact demonstrated by her non-profit organisation that supports poetry workshops and youth advocacy. 

The T.S. Eliot prize-winning poet Roger Robinson consistently states that poetry encourages and promotes empathy. Gorman demonstrated the truth of this belief when she inspired tears, hope and love from her recitation on that world stage on Wednesday. 

I was reminded of this last week when my WhatsApp beeped. It was a poem from my niece in Brooklyn who was inspired by Gorman to write a powerful poem about black girl magic - this from a young woman who had been sending me despondent and devastating texts, poems and thoughtful ruminations since witnessing George Floyd's death and the aftermath. Yet today Gorman had inspired a hopeful poem and possibly recruited a future poet into the world of literature. My niece had seen herself reflected and was changed. 

These are the miracles that creative writing endeavour. The nations watched a young orator climb a hill even as she stated: "The hill we climb if only we dare it" and were propelled into a world of boundless possibilities. Gorman cast a new spell that broke the dark one hanging on from the old administration and the world is basking in her magic.

 I like to think that the Writing School at the University is also enabling magic, imagination and possibilities in our own students.  

By Becky Swain, Director of the Manchester Poetry Library at Manchester Metropolitan University that opens later this year

Part of our job at Manchester Poetry Library is to work with partners across and beyond the city to build an inspirational collection of poetry: written, spoken, and on film. 

Amanda Gorman’s performance of “The Hill We Climb” stole the presidential inauguration show. The ability to find the right words at the right time is something special, and poetry so often proves that it can speak to the moment. Gorman told reporters on the day that she hoped ‘to do this time justice’.​ If you haven’t seen it already, take a look at the performance by this young poet, and you will see why we have decided already that it will be part of the public collection of poetry in performance that we will shine a spotlight on at the library.

Now 22, Gorman became the first National Youth Poet Laureate for the U.S in 2017. Her poem has attracted attention across the globe. In the hours after the event, Malala Yousafzai,  the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner and education activist, and Ambassador for Manchester Met's Mother Tongue Other Tongue multilingual poetry competition, like many others, shared lines from Gorman's poem on twitter: “For there is always light/if only we’re brave enough to see it/If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

One of the key ambitions of both Manchester Writing School and the Poetry Library is to discover and nurture new writers. In our experience, whenever a brilliant poet of any age is given such a public platform anywhere in the world, there have been a multitude of steps for them to make it to that moment.

For Gorman she describes that she was encouraged by both her mother and a teacher in the third grade who introduced her to poetry. She says that it was through writing and performing poetry that she felt she found her voice. For many, support from parents, carers grandparents, teachers, youth workers, poets, university lecturers and others will have been key. And of course, overcoming doubt and personal challenges to find the confidence to perform with such grace. It can be easy to think that poetry is a skill that only a small number of genius wordsmiths can achieve, but it is definitely a skill that can be learnt and enjoyed by many.

As well as offering creative writing courses for adults, Manchester Met is home to Manchester Children’s Book Festival. Working together we offer a year-round programme with schools and partners across the city to provide opportunities for children to read, listen to, watch, write and share their own poetry. It is one of the many ways that we play our part in supporting the next generation of readers and writers.

Even though the physical opening of Manchester Poetry Library may be delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions, we host virtual events, and are busy planning and distributing poetry resources to teachers and home-schoolers for events including the city-wide Multilingual Mushaira in Manchester on International Mother Language Day. We continue to Mother Tongue Other Tongue, which will launch again next month open to children ages 8-18.

The renowned poet Imtiaz Dharker joined us for a recent celebration of the poetry from the competition and said something apt about the power that words can have on all of us. She said, “it is inspiring to see these young people coming to language as something freshly discovered, newly-made. That is where poetry begins.”