James Baldwin, literary and civil conscience of a country torn by the question of Afro-American identity and the history of oppression that he had behind him, said that the true duty of the artist is to recreate “from the disorder of life that order which is art “. The writer, for Baldwin, must dig with all possible obstinacy into the depths of his own existence. It is also thanks to the visions of Baldwin (1924-1987) that today «a slender black girl, descendant of slaves, raised by a single mother, can dream of becoming president, and find herself declaiming for who she has become».
The name of that slim girl born in Los Angeles, Amanda Gorman, has been around the world since she recited the poem The Hill We Climb during the inauguration of Joe Biden. Since that January 20 Gorman’s verses – which now the Corriere is sending to newsstands with the translation by Francesca Spinelli – have come under the scrutiny of newspapers and critics, provoking, especially in the United States, a renewed interest in poetry.
According to “Forbes”, poetry events organized through the Eventbrite online platform increased by 24% compared to the period preceding Biden’s inauguration. Workshops, readings, debates, conferences, shows: in the three weeks between January 20 and February 9, thanks to the restrictions imposed by the health emergency, these virtual initiatives have experienced a constant increase. Tamara Mendelsohn, Head of Marketing at Eventbrite, explained to “Forbes” that the poetry-themed events organized last January were double compared to the same month in 2020. Between December 2020 and January 2021, searches with the keyword “Poetry” on the Eventbrite website increased by 90%. Gorman, who shares a speech impediment with Biden – until two or three years ago, for example, could not pronounce the letter “r” – became a star on the same day Lady Gaga and Jennifer performed. Lopez, no small feat.
National Poetry Month kicks off on April 1st in the United States, the month dedicated to poetry, first launched 25 years ago. In the wake of the “Gorman effect”, thousands of fans and professionals will be involved and connected, mostly through virtual events.
At 22, Gorman, graduated cum laude in Sociology from Harvard and named 2017 National Youth Poet Laureate, was the youngest poet invited to act at a presidential inauguration (she turned 23 on March 7). She was chosen by the first lady, Jill Biden, who was fascinated by her reading at the Library of Congress in Washington in 2017.
On January 20, Gorman also wore a gold ring with the symbol of an aviary, a gift from Oprah Winfrey and a tribute to Maya Angelou, the first African American poetess to perform at an inauguration at the Capitol, for Bill Clinton in 1993 (the first of six “inaugural poets” was Robert Frost, in 1961, for the Kennedy settlement). The reference to the aviary is not accidental: Angelou is the author of the autobiography I know why the caged bird sings (1969), a poignant book, the first of seven volumes, in which the specter of sexual abuse suffered as a child recurs. Oprah Winfrey, who signs the preface a The Hill We Climb, of literary careers has contributed to supporting several with the stamp of his Book Club on the cover: ask the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead, who made the front page of «Time» in 2019, as well as Gorman in February of this year.
The title The Hill We Climb it refers to the “hill” of civil rights, which Gorman invites us to climb with courage. The author finished writing the poem on the night of the assault on the American Congress, last January 6, at the hands of Trump supporters. In the wake of the tradition of civil poetry, Gorman’s work is an invitation to unity and reconciliation. The language, simple and direct, is intended first of all to arouse positivity and emotion. While writing the poem, Gorman listened to the soundtrack of the musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, from which he took inspiration to instill rhythm in his text – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died at 101 on February 22, said that every poem must reach a state of ecstasy, halfway between speech and song.
In the verses of The Hill We Climb – in total 131 free verses, scattered with anaphoras, enjambement and allusions – the poet alternates images of light and shadow, hope and fear, to describe the two opposing souls of America. It is no coincidence that the last verse contains only the word “Light”, which we will find once we get to the top of the hill. If the translation of the poem caused a stir in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands and Spain, where translators were asked to be “preferably black women”, its message immediately reached a global audience.
Amanda Gorman’s voice comes from afar. Being American, he writes, “is the past we enter into”. In that past are the souls lost during the middle passage, ocean crossings in slave ships, centuries of forced labor and Jim Crow segregation laws, which humiliated millions of African Americans when they thought they had achieved freedom. “You taught me to talk and I got the only advantage of being able to curse”: Baldwin borrowed the words of the slave Caliban, one of the characters of the Storm (1623) by Shakespeare, to describe the price the black American pays for the mere fact of being able to express himself. Toni Morrison, who would have turned 90 this year and who was a sincere friend of Baldwin, used even harsher words in Beloved (1987), one of the works that adorn the temple of African American literature: “In the world there is no misfortune, there is only the white man”. If today a slender black girl descended from slaves can play in the inauguration of a president, it is also thanks to the visions of two giants like Baldwin and Morrison.
In the year of Ferlinghetti’s death it is nice to think that the renewed interest in poetry is also the result of a passing of the baton between the last of the Beat and Amanda Gorman, two generations so distant as to unite the world.
On newsstands with the «Corriere» from March 31st
The book of the poet Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb. Words of courage, hope and the future, will be on newsstands with the Corriere della Sera at a price of € 9.90 (plus the cost of the newspaper) starting from Wednesday 31 March. And from the same day it will also be in bookstores with the publisher Garzanti. The text that reports the poem read by Amanda Gorman on the inauguration of American President Joe Biden (January 20, 2021) has been translated by Francesca Spinelli and is enriched by a short but intense preface by Oprah Winfrey.
Amanda Gorman, who is a Catholic, was born in Los Angeles on March 7, 1998 and graduated cum laude in 2020 at Harvard in Sociology. She is committed as an activist in the struggle for the defense of the environment, for racial equality and gender justice. His activism and his poetic production have found space in television programs such as The Today Show, Pbs Kids, Cbs This Morning, and in newspapers and magazines, from the New York Times to Vogue, Essence and O, The Oprah Magazine. In 2017, she was the first poet to be awarded the title of National Youth Poet Laureate by Urban World, a program that supports young poets in more than 60 American cities, regions and states. Now Gorman has returned to live in Los Angeles, her hometown. He has published the volume of verses The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough published by Urban Word in 2015. His website is: theamandagorman.com.
March 30, 2021 (change March 30, 2021 | 15:16)
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