Who is Amanda Gorman? Florida school bans Joe Biden inauguration poem leaving poet "gutted"

Amanda Gorman created headlines after reciting The Hill We Climb at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration. However, she was left disappointed after her poem was removed from the course of the elementary school children at Bob Graham education center in Miami Lakes. Discussing the same, Gorman claimed that she was “gutted” to learn about the complaint that came from a parent, which led to the ban.

The parent's complaint stated that the poem was "not educational" and that it had "indirect hate messages." Amanda Gorman talked about the complaint on social media and also attached a copy with her message. The complaint showed that the parent had confused Amanda's name with Oprah Winfrey's name and even wrote Oprah's name as the name of the publisher.

In her social media post, Amanda wrote:

Amanda shared a lengthy post talking about book bans and stated some statistics about the same.

However, it was not just Amanda’s book that offended the parent. The parent also requested other books like ABCs of Black History, Cuban Kids, and Countries in the News Cuba to be taken out from the kids’ syllabus.

Amanda Gorman is the author of the book, The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country. She became the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States in 2017 and also served as the youth poet laureate of Los Angeles. Apart from this, she is also the founder of One Pen One Page, an organization providing free writing programs for youth.

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All you should know about Amanda Gorman

Amanda Gorman was born in Los Angeles in 1998 and was raised by a single mother, who was an English teacher. She has a twin sister, Gabrielle, and an older brother, Spencer.

The poet made her way into the spotlight after she became the Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles at the young age of 16. She then earned another feather in her cap when she because the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017.

The world started to recognize her better when she appeared in the May 2021 issue of Vogue. She was chosen by the first lady, Dr. Jill Biden, to perform at the inauguration. In addition, she holds the distinction of being the inaugural poet selected to compose a poem specifically for the Super Bowl.

At the same time, she has also authored other books of poetry like The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough. Her love for writing and poetry took her to Harvard University in 2016. She also cohosted the Met Gala and has been a familiar face at other events like the annual benefit for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Amanda is also known for her other works like her children’s book Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem. She has also published a collection of poetry, Call Us What We Carry.

Currently, Amanda Gorman is fighting hard to bring back her book in the syllabus of school, as she thinks that there is nothing that the parent claimed in their complaint.