February is Black History Month, an annual celebration of the achievements of Black Americans and a time to recognize and reflect on the accomplishments, struggles, successes, and contributions Black figures have had, not just in our country but throughout the world.
Today, the Edison Public Library recognizes American poet Amanda S.C. Gorman.
Born March 7, 1998, Gorman and her two sisters were raised by an English teacher mom in Los Angeles. Gorman loved to read and write and, although she had an auditory processing disorder and a speech impediment growing up, went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in sociology.
Gorman published the poetry collection The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015. Two years later, she was named the country’s first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate and, in 2021, a 22-year-old Gorman became the youngest poet to deliver a reading at a presidential inauguration.
Just weeks after reciting her original poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at the January 20, 2021 inauguration of former President Joe Biden, Gorman added another ‘first’ to a growing list of accolades when she became the first poet commissioned to write and read an original work at the Super Bowl; her poem, “Chorus of the Captains,” honored three frontline workers during the COVID-19 pandemic who were chosen to be the game's honorary captains. Over the years, Gorman has also performed multiple commissioned poems for national news affiliates and spoken at events and venues across the country.
In addition to The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough, Gorman is the author of the poetry books The Hill We Climb and Call Us What We Carry as well as the picture books Change Sings and Something, Someday. She has also written for the New York Times newsletter “The Edit” and penned the manifesto for Nike's 2020 Black History Month campaign. Most recently, she penned the poem “Do Us Good,” which was inspired by the 2024 blockbuster film Wicked.
Gorman is also the founder and executive director of One Pen One Page, an organization providing free creative writing programs for underserved youth. She has also served as an Indie Bookstore Ambassador and is the youngest board member of 826 National, the largest youth writing network in the United States.
To learn more about Amanda Gorman, or to read some of the poems in her growing collection, check out these titles available to Edison Public Library cardholders:
