Gayle Anderson reports the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history will read a poem she finished after the riot at the Capitol. Amanda Gorman’s new work is titled “The Hill We Climb.”
The Los Angeles native Ms. Gorman was crowned the first Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate at Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Library when she was 16 years old. She served as LA Youth Poet Ambassador and received a book deal with Penmanship Books to public her first collection of poems. The Youth Poet Laureate program is a partnership among PEN Center USA, Urban Word, the Los Angeles County Commission for Human Relations and the Los Angeles Public Library. Here is a blog story on that event: https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/lapl-plays-role-selection-citys-first-youth-poet-laureate
The Harvard educated Ms. Gorman joins a small group of poets recruited to mark a presidential inauguration, among them Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, Miller Williams, Elizabeth Alexander and Richard Blanco.
If you want to learn more about the presidency, you can visit lapl.org to check out books, from this list below prepared by Los Angeles Public Library librarians, on e-media or via Library To Go.
Inauguration Booklist:
353.03 B6897 Presidential inaugurations by Paul F. Bollar © 2001.
353.03 K62 Hail to the Chief! : The inauguration days of our Presidents by Glenn D. Kittler ©1966.
394.4 A5125 American inaugurals : the speeches, the presidents, and their times ©2002.
394.4 F3225 Fellow citizens: the Penguin book of U.S. presidential addresses ©2008.
394.4 P326 I Do Solemnly Swear : The President’s Constitutional Oath Its Meaning and Importance in the History of Oaths by Matthew A. Pauley ©1999.
394.4 U585-2 2001 I Do Solemnly Swear: The Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, 1789-2001 ©2001.
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To learn more about Ms. Gorman, visit her website: theAmandaGorman.com
If you have questions or complaints, please feel free to contact Gayle Anderson at 1-323-460-5732 or email at Gayle.Anderson@KTLA.com