The Hill We (Need to) Climb: Amanda Gorman Illuminates the Paradox of American Exceptionalism
Amanda Gorman is forging not only a path of her own but one for many others who we can imagine are eager to follow in her footsteps
By Joshua Jordan
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
—Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”
Millions of us heard Amanda Gorman for the first time earlier this month. Since hearing her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2021, I’ve become enamored by the Inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate, who earned the distinction in 2017 at Gracie Mansion in New York City.
Though her forthcoming books have climbed Amazon’s best-seller list, to #1 and #2, Amanda Gorman has forged a trail-blazing path and has been in the thick of social justice for several years now.
In addition to becoming the Inaugural National Youth Poet laureate, Gorman is the founder and Executive Director of One Pen One Page, “which promotes literacy among youth through creative writing programming, an online magazine, and advocacy initiatives.” Her accolades, according to her website, include being invited to the White House, performing for “Hamilton” playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hillary Clinton, and Malala Yousafzai (the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, who was an inspiration to Amanda Gorman).
Though it sometimes
Is chocolate
Or sometimes vanilla
It can be female
Or a male
It is right
Or left
I can agree
Or disagree but
And this is an important but
I am a citizen
—Nikki Giovanni, “Vote”
Lest we forget our history, Amanda Gorman on the national stage is the embodiment of what so many Americans would have suppressed less than a century ago: a Black voice. And which they still try to suppress today. In the words of Keeyanga-Yamahtta Taylor, “Of course the country has changed, but the passage of time alone is not a guarantee that it has changed for the better.”
Amanda Gorman is forging not only a path of her own but one for many others who we can imagine are eager to follow in her footsteps. And her presence on the same stage as the President of the United States is something to behold.
Harriet Tubman. Ida B. Wells. Mary McLeod Bethune. Dorothy Height. Rosa Parks. Ella Baker. Diane Nash. Fannie Lou Hamer.
Can you imagine these Black activists—these Black voices—being openly embraced by the President of the United States? What could have happened. What would have happened. The countless Black brothers and sisters who would have been moved and provided a sense of American citizenship and reassurance?
Undoubtedly, Amanda Gorman has provided such American citizenship and reassurance to countless Black brothers and sisters today.
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
—Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”
“But one of the lessons of history is that it is hard to see the picture when you are inside the frame.”
—Paul Butler, law professor at Georgetown University and author of “Chokehold”
Not only did Amanda Gorman recite her poem for the president, she also recited one at the Super Bowl—the first poet to do so. She honored the NFL’s three Honorary Captains and their impact during the COVID-19 pandemic—which she was slated to do before gaining widespread recognition at the inauguration.
And not only did Amanda Gorman recite a poem at the Super Bowl, but she’ll be modeling for IMG Models—further giving a sense of self to countless Black boys and girls in this promised land.
As Paul Butler says in the quote above, it’s hard to see the picture when you’re inside the frame. From Butler’s point of view, this is a stark reminder that many of us insulate ourselves from the indignities which don’t personally affect us—the realities which exist outside our sphere of experience.
If some of us are in the picture, what does that say about those who aren’t, who are on the outside looking in? It says that we need someone like Amanda Gorman on the national stage.