Read and answer Carefully read the article about the poet, Amanda Gorman.

Annotate as you read to help develop your ideas.

Answer the following questions in detail, using complete sentences and textual evidence.

Your answers should be 3 sentences minimum. Consider using the Tied method to support your claims/answers.

An Introduction to the Poet
Do you know who Amanda Gorman is? After Jan. 20, many more people will know her name since, at 22, she is now the youngest inaugural poet in U. S. history. Committed to connecting literacy to the project of democracy, she considers reading and writing to be instruments of social change.
Encouraged by her mother, an English teacher, Ms. Gorman began writing poems as a child, finding her voice as she assembled words on the page. Where other young poets turn inward, she draws inspiration from events in the news.
In an interview with Adeel Hassan, she talks about what she felt as a child:
“I grew up at this incredibly odd intersection in Los Angeles, where it felt like the Black ’hood met Black elegance met white gentrification met Latin culture met wetlands. Traversing between these worlds, either to go to a private school in Malibu, or then come back home to my family’s two-bedroom apartment, gave me an appreciation for different cultures and realities, but also made me feel like an outsider. I’m sure my single mother, Joan Wicks, might describe me as a precocious child, but looking back in elementary school I often self-described myself as a plain ‘weird’ child. I spent most of elementary school convinced that I was an alien. Literally.”

It has been a remarkable journey for Ms. Gorman to have traveled from feeling like an alien to becoming first the Youth Poet of Los Angeles, then, three years later, the first National Youth Poet Laureate and now the youngest inaugural poet in U. S. history.
Watch her 2018 TEDEd talk, Using your voice is a political choice | Amanda Gorman, to learn a little more about her. You will see that, in the tradition of a griot speaking truth to power, Ms. Gorman often turns to her literary mantra, “I am the daughter of Black writers, who are descended from Freedom Fighters, who broke the chains who changed the world. They call me.”

LINK TO TEDTALK: Using your voice is a political choice | Amanda Gorman

What does she say in this talk that stands out for you? Why?

Have you ever encountered poetry that, like the examples she gives, has something interesting to say about politics and democracy? What examples come to mind?

How might you answer her key questions: “Whose shoulders do you stand on? What do you stand for?”

What does the author mean by “considers reading and writing to be instruments of social change?” Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

How can you relate to Amanda Gorman?