The power of your words blew me away-but it was more than that. Like the rest of the country, I was profoundly moved as I watched you read your poem “The Hill We Climb” at last month’s Inauguration. I can’t imagine anything more exciting than that.īuy a print of TIME’s Amanda Gorman ‘Black Renaissance’ cover In all the forms of expression of human life, we’re seeing that artistry be informed by the Black experience. We’re seeing it in dance, we’re seeing it in music. We’re seeing it in fashion, we’re seeing it in the visual arts. But then I also get to create art and participate in that historical record. What’s been exciting for me is I get to absorb and to live in that creation I see from other African-American artists that I look up to. Whether that’s looking at what it means politically to have an African-American President before Trump, or looking at what it means to have the Black Lives movement become the largest social movement in the United States. What do you make of calling this period a “renaissance”? And where do you see yourself within it?Īmanda Gorman: We’re living in an important moment in Black art because we’re living in an important moment in Black life. Michelle Obama: We’re here to talk about the current renaissance in Black art-this surge of creativity we’ve seen over the past six years or so. In a remote interview, Gorman and Obama covered topics ranging from the role of art in activism to the pressures Black women face in the spotlight. Her three upcoming books shot to the top of Amazon’s bestseller list and the NFL soon announced plans for her to recite an original poem at Super Bowl LV. Gorman, who was named the first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017, emerged in an instant as the latest inspiring young artist of the renaissance. Sitting just feet away from the 22-year-old that day was former First Lady Michelle Obama, who had met Gorman twice before-in 2016 at a White House event for the National Student Poets program and again at a 2018 event for Black Girls Rock, an organization that seeks to empower women and girls. Amanda Gorman captivated the world when she read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ Jan.