Destaques do autor: Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman é uma inspiração para muitos e a sua jornada é de facto louvável.

1. Foi a poetisa mais jovem a recitar numa posse presidencial nos EUA

Aos 22 anos, Amanda Gorman fez história ao recitar o poema The Hill We Climb na posse de Joe Biden em 2021.

2. Tem um histórico impressionante em competições de poesia

Aos 16 anos, foi nomeada National Youth Poet Laureate, tornando-se a primeira pessoa a receber esse título nos Estados Unidos.

3. Lutou contra um problema de fala na infância 

Assim como Joe Biden, Amanda tinha dificuldades com a pronúncia de certos sons e trabalhou duro para superar isso, inclusive usou a música de Hamilton, de Lin-Manuel Miranda, para treinar a sua dicção.

4. Foi inspirado por Maya Angelou e Toni Morrison

Grandes autoras negras influenciaram o seu estilo e a sua visão do mundo. Além disso, Maya Angelou também recitou um poema na posse de Bill Clinton em 1993, o que serviu de inspiração para Amanda.

5. Usou um anel especial na posse de Biden

O anel que usou durante a sua recitação foi um presente de Oprah Winfrey, com uma imagem de uma gaiola em referência ao poema I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, de Maya Angelou. 

6. Escreveu três livros que se tornaram best-sellers

Seus livros The Hill We Climb, Call Us What We Carry e Change Sings venderam milhares de cópias e fizeram dela uma das poetisas mais bem-sucedidas comercialmente.

7. Foi capa da Time e entrevistada por Michelle Obama

Após a sua performance na posse, Gorman apareceu na capa da Time e foi entrevistada por Michelle Obama, com quem compartilha preocupações sobre educação e igualdade racial. 

8. Recusou um contrato milionário por princípios éticos 

Depois de sua fama mundial, recebeu diversas propostas de marcas, mas recusou aquelas que não estavam alinhadas com os seus valores.

9. Foi homenageada com uma Barbie

A Mattel criou uma boneca inspirada nela como parte de uma coleção de mulheres que fazem história.

10. Sofreu censura em escolas americanas

Em 2023, seu poema The Hill We Climb foi banido de algumas escolas da Flórida, o que reacendeu debates sobre censura e liberdade de expressão nos EUA. 

Poema “The Hill We Climb” - Amanda Gorman

“When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast, we’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace and the norms and notions of what just is, isn’t always justice. And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it, somehow we do it, somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.

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. And, yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect, we are striving to forget a union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.

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 lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another, we seek harm to none and harmony for all. 

Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: that even as we grieved, we grew, even as we hurt, we hoped, that even as we tired, we tried, that we’ll forever be tied together victorious, not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again show division. 

Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one should make them afraid. If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in in all of the bridges we’ve made. 

That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare it because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it. We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it. That would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy, and this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can periodically be delayed, but it can never be permanently defeated. 

In this truth, in this faith, we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us, this is the era of just redemption we feared in its inception we did not feel prepared to be heirs of such a terrifying hour but within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laugher to ourselves, so while once we asked how can we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert how could catastrophe possible prevail over us.

We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be, a country that is bruised but whole,, benevolent but bold, fierce and free, we will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation, our blunders become their burden. But one thing is certain: if we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright. 

So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left, with every breath from my bronze, pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one, we will rise from the golden hills of the West, we will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution, we will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states, we will rise from the sun baked South, we will rebuild, reconcile, and recover in every known nook of our nation in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful, when the day comes we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid, 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.”