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  • (upbeat music)

  • - Something that I learned as a young poet

  • is that there's no such thing as an aspiring writer.

  • If you write, you are doing the work, you're showing up.

  • And so in all technical terms, you've made it.

  • So every single time that I have the fortune

  • of being able to pick up a pen and write,

  • I know that I've arrived exactly at the spot I need to be.

  • (upbeat music)

  • Hi, I'm Amanda Gorman,

  • and I'm on set for my cover shoot with Harper's BAZAAR.

  • It means a lot to me to be one of the icons for this issue.

  • I remember three or four years ago being at a dinner party

  • with now editor in chief of Harper's BAZAAR, Samira Nasr.

  • And I just think back to that moment

  • because I would've never assumed that

  • in the blink of an eye after that,

  • I would have the opportunity of seeing her again,

  • interacting with her again as an icon

  • of the Harper's BAZAAR issue.

  • At the time when we were meeting,

  • no one in that room really knew who I was.

  • And so feeling in the trajectory of looking up

  • and coming to terms with the fact that my art means so much

  • to so many people,

  • that's the absolute deepest honor

  • that any writer could have.

  • And it's just a real full circle,

  • for me, to be here in this moment.

  • (upbeat music)

  • The word icon to me means someone who represents something

  • that is larger than themselves.

  • One icon from the past that I would've loved

  • to have had the privilege of meeting would be Maya Angelou,

  • who was an incredible poet.

  • She also was an inaugural poet, as well,

  • and I just would've loved to have a conversation with her

  • about what that meant to her life.

  • I feel the most iconic when I feel the most like myself.

  • I will say some instances that really take me back

  • are when I see murals or drawings or artwork

  • of my face or my poetry.

  • It shows me how many people can resonate

  • with a single verse, with a single word,

  • and reminds me that it's not just

  • about the person that's writing the poems,

  • but what the poems are saying

  • that makes that art form so iconic.

  • (upbeat music)

  • Poetry has always been integral to my life,

  • although I didn't always know that's what it was called.

  • I remember being five or six years old and writing poems

  • but not knowing that there is actually a name

  • and a profession for that.

  • I just thought I was finding a way

  • to express myself on the page.

  • And as I continued to grow up,

  • I learned this thing that is a calling

  • can actually be a career for me in my life.

  • I'm not sure if there was a time

  • that I realized I had talent

  • so much as there was a time I realized I had a desire

  • to have talent.

  • And that was when I was in third grade,

  • and I was reading "Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury.

  • And I remember seeing his talent in that piece of art

  • and knowing instantaneously I wanted to work

  • in craft, in labor,

  • so one day I, too, could harness the craft

  • and the gift of writing.

  • I don't think I've reached my peak yet,

  • but I think I have reached certain mountain tops

  • by which I can look out at my life

  • and see where I wanna move forward.

  • And I think post-inauguration

  • was definitely one of those moments

  • and locations where I felt like for the first time,

  • I had a real clear bird's eye view

  • of the power that my poetry could have on people

  • and how that power could be used for social change.

  • (upbeat music)

  • My process of writing is messy,

  • and it can look all over the place.

  • But what it typically consists of is me sitting down

  • and doing as much research as I can.

  • I like looking at archives, newspapers, interviews,

  • trying to get as much, kind of,

  • gritty, informational material.

  • Then from that, I create a word cloud of,

  • what is all this information, history, data telling me?

  • And from that vomit of terminology,

  • I then try to create something that has reason,

  • logic, and movement.

  • And then that will become a poem.

  • There are so many people who inspire me.

  • I believe that I'm not writing alone

  • but out of a deep, long heritage of African American writers

  • who have used both the written and spoken word tradition

  • to advocate for social transformation.

  • So I look up to icons like James Baldwin,

  • Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison,

  • just kind of all of the great epic writers of their time.

  • (upbeat music)

  • I believe poetry is so important

  • because it's the language of the people.

  • So often when we're speaking to issues

  • that feel larger than life,

  • larger than any one nation or planet even,

  • we do it in the form of heightened language.

  • Two of kind of the core examples I have of that would be

  • the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

  • That is to say, when we reflect

  • on who we want to be as a country,

  • often we feel prose can work, but it's not enough.

  • We need access to another form of language

  • that can bring us together.

  • Another example I bring up a lot in the classroom

  • when I'm teaching would be Martin Luther King's

  • "I Have a Dream" speech,

  • which is not only a singular work of prose,

  • but it's also historic text of poetry.

  • The way that he uses rhythm,

  • sometimes rhyme, figurative language.

  • It all shows that when you want people to move, to act,

  • to believe, to trust,

  • poetry really is the language that can get us there.

  • One of of the literary works that has had the most impact

  • on me and my life would be "The Bluest Eye"

  • by Toni Morrison.

  • And I had never before, in class,

  • really been assigned a piece of work that had been written

  • by a Black feminist.

  • Never had I read a work in class

  • that had characters who looked like me

  • and sounded like me

  • but also had these rich dimensions of humanity.

  • And from then on, that was the first moment in my life

  • that I ever wrote a short story that was about a Black girl,

  • that I ever considered writing poems

  • that were about African Americans.

  • It challenged me

  • to reimagine what would be possible through language.

  • (upbeat music)

  • When I'm feeling discouraged,

  • I look for hope both within and outside of myself.

  • I'm a strong believer that hope isn't an object.

  • It's not something you can buy.

  • It's not property.

  • It's a practice. It's a craft.

  • It's something that you have to do again and again

  • and build up the kind of muscle memory for it.

  • And then I kind of look outrospectively

  • and think who are the helpers, the levers,

  • the healers at work that I can look to,

  • who I feel even if I don't know them,

  • I might have never even met them,

  • give me some spark of a belief in humanity.

  • And I can say more often than not,

  • a lot of times I see that type of energy

  • in other young people and other Gen Z members,

  • and especially in other artists and creatives.

  • One of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten

  • would be from Oprah Winfrey,

  • who told me be aware of other people's agendas

  • and never let them swallow your own.

  • It was a great reminder to always stay true

  • to what I know of myself and who I know myself to be.

  • Whenever people ask me what my advice

  • to the younger generation is,

  • I have to stop and take stock

  • because I think I should actually be listening to the voices

  • and the advice that the next generation has.

  • I think never before have we had a generation

  • who was so sure of not just the urgency,

  • but the emergency of the moment.

  • When my mom was growing up,

  • she was told by teachers, mentors to change the world.

  • When I was growing up, I was told to save the world

  • because that's the type of time and moment we're in.

  • And so if I were to give any piece

  • of advice to the younger generation,

  • it's trust your gut, trust your instincts,

  • trust what you know, and be continuously aware

  • that you are quite literally the force of the future.

  • (upbeat music)

(upbeat music)

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