Amanda Gorman

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/20/amanda-gorman-poem-biden-inauguration-transcript

Amanda Gorman is 22 years old and has just become the youngest ever Poet Laureate in the USA. During Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony this week she performed a poem that she wrote for the occasion.

Amanda was born in Los Angeles and started writing as a young girl. As a child she struggled with her speech and she talked recently in an interview about the pressure she felt to be reading the poem at the inauguration, but she did it!

In the poem Amanda says,

“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 seek harm to none and harmony for all.”

“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”

-          What was the inauguration for?

-          What is a poet laureate?

-          Do you think when Amanda was a little girl who struggled with her speech, that she thought she would deliver an address at the inauguration of the President of the US when she was 22?

-          What does that show about the future?

-          Take each line highlighted above and discuss what it means; why did Amanda choose those words?

-          What can we learn from Amanda?

        Why is this about No Outsiders?

         No Outsiders: Everyone different, everyone welcome by Andrew Moffat

        www.no-outsiders.com