“Call Us What We Carry” is the debut poetry collection of Amanda Gorman, who, according to NPR, became the youngest ever inaugural poet in 2021 at 22 years old. Her website notes that she graduated from Harvard with a degree in sociology in 2020, a year before she performed at Joe Biden’s inauguration. Gorman was appointed as the first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. Now, she is the youngest board member of 826 National, the largest youth writing network in the United States. Her first two books, a children’s book titled “Change Sings” and the published version of her inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb,” were released in September 2021. Readers can dive deeper into her work with “Call Us What We Carry,” originally “The Hill We Climb and Other Poems,” which was published on Dec. 7, 2021.
Amanda Gorman: Poet, Activist, Inauguration Performer
If you watched President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, Jan. 20, there was one moment in particular that Skye Gorman ’24 believes “spoke to America”: Amanda Gorman’s reading of her poem “The Hill We Climb.”
“She was really the star of the inauguration,” Skye Gorman said. Past presidents and key politicians watched as Gorman, the youngest poet to speak at an inauguration, captivated Capitol Hill for over five minutes. She was met with a standing ovation and a nation wondering, “Who is Amanda Gorman?,” a curiosity reflected in media coverage following the event.