RISE UP
I first met Amanda Gorman at a dinner hosted by Vital Voices, an incredible organization founded in 1997 by then First Lady Hillary Clinton, committed to investing in fearless women leaders with daring vision. The room itself was filled with daring visionaries, Secretary Clinton herself present among us. That evening, Amanda performed a poem she had written called, “We Rise.” Energy poured out of her heart and soared through the room; her words piercing the air we breathed, gliding on the wings of a fearless and dazzling spirit. Simply, I thought, “this girl is going to change the world.”
On International Youth Day, we recognize and celebrate young people around the world demonstrating their resilience, collective action, and creativity. I am deeply grateful Amanda agreed to collaborate with us for KIND.EST.
Preparing for this article, I asked Amanda, “what is YOUTH in six words?” The answer: REVOLUTIONARY, DYNAMIC, LOVELY, NEW, IMAGINATIVE, PASSIONATE. In other words — Her.
I am pleased to introduce you to my brilliant friend, Miss Amanda Gorman.
Our future is bold and bright. Together, We Rise.
““Poetry is in itself a rebellious craft.””
Photo Credit: Kelia Anne MacCluskey
IN CONVERSATION: Amanda Gorman
WHAT COMES TO MIND WHEN YOU THINK OF THE WORD “YOUTH” ?
Vibrancy, energy, power--the future waiting to be made. Often youth is conflated with beauty; you must be 'youthful looking' to be gorgeous. And I do think there is something beautiful about youth, but it's not about how it appears, but how it feels: hopeful, creative, restless. We can all have a piece of that, no matter our age.
WHAT MAKES YOU CURIOUS?
Knowing there's so many things that I still don't know, and that every piece of knowledge is power.
WHAT IS THE DECIDING FACTOR WHEN COMMITTING TO A POEM?
I have to write about something that matters to me. Writing can be a very grueling process, intellectually, emotionally, physically, and so the fuel behind it has to outshine the challenge. It's almost like a fever washes over me, all the words demanding to burst out. I let them flow onto the page, and then I start to shape the clay I've created.
WHAT HAS BEEN AN IMPORTANT ACCOMPLISHMENT FOR YOU?
I'm often most well known as the Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of the United States, and that's definitely an accomplishment I'm proud of. But I'm also proud to have graduated college; education is incredibly important to me, and there were some who thought I'd skip over college for my poetic career. I'm so grateful I was able to do college my way, never forfeiting my education.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING A LEADER OF YOUR GENERATION?
It's always nerve-wracking when people tell you you're a role model. In my perception, being a leader in this phenomenal generation means also being led by this generation; being open to learning, to growth, to challenge, and the plethora of voices that are saying what needs to be said, if not yelled.
DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A REBEL? HOW ABOUT YOUR GENERATION?
I frequently say that poetry is in itself a rebellious craft. You spend the better part of your upbringing and education learning standardized rules of language, and then poetry purposefully ruptures from those precautions. It breaks lines, breaks expectations. Sometimes the best way for me to finish a poem is to lean into that rebellious nature. I think my generation might not all be poets, but there's definitely an undeniable resistant energy there; pushing back against the old and the accepted, towards the new, hopeful, and helpful.
BETWEEN THE DREAM AND THE GOAL, WHAT IS YOUR DISCIPLINE TO ACHIEVE THEM?
Discipline is Sisyphus. It's rolling that stone up every day even when the goal seems farther away. When I'm writing a project that seems impossible to be written, I remember that my success lies not in that brief finishing, but in that long, drawn-out continuation of my best self.
SIX WORDS TO EXPLAIN “YOUTH” :
Revolutionary, dynamic, lovely, new, imaginative, passionate.
WHO OR WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IN YOUR LIFE?
The people I love.
WHEN WERE YOU ESTABLISHED KIND?
I'm not sure if it was one moment, but a series of recurring decisions every day of my life to be kind. In our household we are always asking each other: "Is this kind? Is this true? Is it necessary?" Haha and I'm still working on it, I'm nowhere near perfect. But it reminds me to be Established Kind, today and forever.
