‘UNITY WITH PURPOSE’
INAUGURAL POET AMANDA GORMAN IN CONVERSATION
WITH FORMER FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA
PHOTOGRAPH BY
AWOL ERIZKU
FOR TIME
His portrait of
Gorman is an
“indirect nod” to
Maya Angelou. “It
needed a layer of
depth that only
poetry can explain,”
he says. “I was
interested in allowing
her to own the
space that she’s in
right now.”Amanda Gorman captivated the
world when she read her poem
“The Hill We Climb” at President
Joe Biden and Vice President
Kamala Harris’ Jan. 20 Inauguration
ceremony. 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!,
The Black Renaissance INTERVIEW