YouSaid · the spoken record

Amanda Gorman

lines on the record: 63
first: 2023-01-19
most recent: 2023-01-19
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“So much everything. I think as a poet, I try to be as optimistic as possible, and I think, like I said in that line, I think it can be really counterproductive if we kind of sit around waiting for something to arrive in our lap that makes us hopeful. I think in many ways we have to seek it out, find it, nourish it, and really discover that optimism and hope for ourselves. And so I would say something that I seek out that really reflects me back reasons to be hopeful is the next generation. I think they're amazing. They're active. I mean, every single time I'm in a classroom, every single time I have the good fortune to teach, I'm just blown away by the fire, the intelligence, and also the compassion of the next generation, not just for people, but for the planet as well. I think that is so distinct and so unique. And I think society, civilized.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's a really good question in that context, not just why, but why at this time things seem kind of, I think, so polarizing and at times so poisonous. I think not to quote myself, but it goes back to what I said in my poem, which is we have to be brave enough not to see light, but to be it. And that's something I demand of myself. I demand myself not just to write, but to do right as well, which means I have to walk the walk, talk to talk. And my words have to stand for something more than just sounding beautiful or being poetry. I think poetry is the language of the people. And so how could I not be continuously inspired by democracy? How could I not be continuously inspired by this idea of an American project in any way that I could participate in that? I would be happy and willing to serve.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would appreciate that. But yeah, I think it's definitely there. I think I'm thinking about it a lot differently than I've ever thought about it. I think before the inauguration happened, I was like, don't really know where this poetry thing is going, but, you know, maybe I'll just go to grad school, do this, do this traditional route in that way I can have a platform to impact change. And then this huge thing happened where I said, oh, wow, actually my poetry is part of that change that is happening. And I want to include that as much as possible into whatever path I take forward. So definitely on the horizon. And I definitely think if, you know, a far way into politics happens by me, it'll be a path that I have to forage for myself.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Valuing that positive, amazing energy I was getting back while also safeguarding my peace and my privacy and my personhood. Which I had taken for granted and thinking about ways in which I had to protect myself because it was amazing. But at the, you know, end of the day, I come back. And you can get carried away in that hurricane. And so I tried to stay grounded by saying yes to things like this, which are exciting and I value. I'm so grateful to be here, but also establishing my nose. I can't do everything I can't be everywhere all the time or else I'm going to burn out.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“After this, but go ahead. It was. So, I think overwhelming. I mean, I was so grateful for the way that people responded to the poem that it resonated with them. But I had no idea the ways in which my life would change. Oprah texted me before the inauguration. She was like, by the way, your life is going to change. I was like, sure, sir. In my head, I was like, maybe two people were like, share this poem and like it and read it someday. Like that was literally the number in my head. I just imagined like one mother randomly in the United States who might have the poem on her fridge or something like that. And so when it ended to kind of step off the podium, I'm going to realize so much had changed for me. That was a really big shift, especially because it was so unexpected. I think what I had to get really good at was”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was gray, I can tell you, yeah, it was a very overcast Shira day, so your memory is spot on. I love yellow. It is one of my favorite colors. Just makes me feel so happy and joyful. It just brings to someone's happiness. I also wore it as a tribute to Dr. Joe Biden, who had been the one to really put my name forward because the video she'd seen of me at the Library of Congress reading had been me in a bright yellow dress. And I had heard. That she, when she was kind of searching for who I had been, she said, You have to find the poet who was in yellow reading. And so I showed up as the poet in yellow.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so I think Elizabeth Alexander had a second copy tucked into her shoes just in case. So what I will do is I will play, I will try to recite it from memory when I practice and I will play very loud, discordant music so that if I can perform with everything going wrong, hopefully it can still get through would not have been as good if I'd just been doing it from memory, but I was. You know, hoping that I was ready for whatever happened that day.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. Read a poem that wasn't the inaugural column. And I think all the inaugural poets that follow after that live with this haunting ghost that we're worried that's going to happen to us.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Maybe. I hope I never have to find out. What I will do is plan for the worst scenario. So I had my poems. I think kind of like Robert Frost when he was reading his novel poem, he had some issues with either kind of”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have thought about that and third offense that the past presidents they've been working with on that podium have been quite. Taller than I”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There was naught, but they had a podium where I could kind of set my poem down, so that was nice. It was very tall for me because I'm five foot two. So that was a little difficult, and both Barack Obama and Joe are taller.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I should practice. And so what I will do is I will try to learn a poem the same way that one might learn a song. So I'll record the very best version of it that I can do. And then I will listen to that on repeat as I'm taking a shower, as I'm eating my breakfast. And then it becomes kind of like lyrics that I can't recite.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would say enough based on what I said. Oh, thank you, thank you. Well, honestly, everything happened so fast. I mean, I was told I was inaugural poet around January 1st. I write the poem January 6th. I'm on a plane. And, you know, maybe a few sets of days or hours heading over. I'm trying to figure out what to wear and what's the situation going to me, not that there's rights. And so everything was just moving so fast that I almost felt like I couldn't really sit down the words again until the night before the inauguration. I kind of kicked my mom out of my hotel room, slightly replayed. I was like, I love you, but I have to do this thing tomorrow that's a very beaten.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thinking right. I remember seeing what was happening live, I think, as a lot of people did, and I went through so many different stages of grief, of anger, in denial, and rage as well. And I don't think I moved to acceptance, but I moved to let me accept a role that I might have in this moment, if that makes sense. I'm not going to accept this for my country, but I'm going to accept that there might be a position I can step into and use my voice for the better. And so I wrote the majority of the poem The Night of January 6th. I've been working on it for the past few days. Non stop, but then that happened, and I was like, this has to be part of the heartbeat of this poem.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. Yeah, yeah. I'm sort of, in your experience, there's a lot more noise and things going on. It was quiet. Like I could hear the flags buffeting on the land. So a very different experience.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. And so I was like, oh, you know, you know, it's going to be a lot of people, but they're going to have the anthem and all these other things. So I'm not going to be caring a lot of that weight. And then, you know, this horrible, violent thing happened. And I've said, oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into? I also think the reason, I mean, definitely there were nerves and jitters, but I think the way they were de-escalated for me is because of COVID, because of the riots, that inoperation was incredibly small. I mean, I was looking out at an audience of maybe 100 people six feet apart. And so it felt very intimate. It didn't feel like I was performing in front of millions. I could kind of, in my consciousness, tell myself that, but I saw me, a small group of people and a monument.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the man, what have I signed up for didn't come from that? It came from the Capitol riots because I had made peace with the idea. A lot of people are going to see this in my head. I was going to be very, very small kind of not very notable part of the ceremony.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, 22. I was, I think, 22 at the time or 21, something like that. And I was like, wow, so they have 20 years on. There's no way I'm going to be selected just because of the demography of what I've seen before. And so when they said I was the poet, I was like, wow, a lot of faith. They're putting it to someone who's out of the hands of everyone before, but I was so excited and overjoyed. I danced around in my socks, in my apartment. And it was just like this little. Amazing magical secret. And then I was like, great, let's get writing”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I did not from there, but I knew him because I was a poet in the U.S. Youth Poet laureate. And he's. All over the place doing amazing stuff. So we went that way, or at least kind of knew of each other. But I knew I was trying to become an inaugural poet in a tradition where most of them are over 40, let's say. And I was”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh gosh, I mean, I was in sheer shock, to be honest, because for a few days, I had kind of been hearing from other people that my name was kind of in the ring, that I was long listed, I was on the short list. I was like, oh, this list is getting shorter and shorter. I hear it through the grapevine. And at that point, I was just Overjoyed to hear my name was even being considered because at that point, the last poet that had read, Richard Blapel, I believe, had been.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. As I mentioned before, when you recite poetry and you have a speech impatient, it can be quite nerve-wracking. I still get stage right in that way. And so I work to kind of develop a mantra that I could recite to myself before performing poetry to make myself feel a little bit more centered. It's actually funny enough based off of the verse in a song in Milana called Song of the Ancestors, which I love. And so I just kind of parsed and changed a few words and rhymes so that it reflected my life. And it goes, I am the daughter of black writers. We are descended from freedom fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Exactly. It was so many writers have done this before if they have, why not me? I should be able to put words in a way that has power and meaning. And I was also thinking, especially around that time of Anne Frank, who was not just writing in isolation, but in terror and fear of a Nazi regime. And she was a young girl. And so I looked at that as, wow, here's this history of people who have been imprisoned and disenfranchised and isolated who are still writing their truths down. I am someone who is incredibly privileged and has resources. And I'm insulated in my house by choice and to protect myself. I should be able to use those privileges and those blessings to write with, you know, just as much fervor as people have been able to do while they've been chained, while they've been shackled. I'm lucky. To be free. So, how dare I not write?”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thank you for bringing that up. And when I mentioned those names, it was to compare me to these. I didn't interpret that one. I don't think that's what you're saying. No, I think you bred.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Place to be writing from. I hope I never have to be writing from such a place ever again and that no one has to. But I think it taught me so much about why I show up to the page.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, absolutely. It was interesting because while I was writing, I would do a few interviews and things and people would ask me what writing was like in that period of, I think, kind of the worst dip of the pandemic. And a lot of interviewers kind of assumed that, oh, writing must be so easy now because you don't have to go outside, you don't have classes really in the same way, and you don't have distractions. I was like, no, if anything writing does a lot more challenging because I'm bringing a lot more grief and baggage into the writer's room. I'm bringing a lot more urgency and despair and questions. But I also think that's in a way where I got my most meaningful writing because I was in a place that was so dark and I wasn't there alone. I was there collectively with the glow that was mourning all we had lost and all we had yet to lose. And so yeah, it was a really, I think you know.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Everything in the sense that I'm trying to even think where to start with this is such a deep conversation. I would say If you look at what student bodies look like before and after for Lib Action, it is really night and day. And like I said, I think there's this idea that. An admission system values difference and diversity. There are students that are getting kind of a free mail ticket into that university. Like it or not, that is happening already with legacies. It's happening already with wealthy students. We see that in so many ways where people with privilege are given, let's say, more open door into that institution, taking away affirmative action would not equalize that, if anything, it would make more pernicious those levels of disparity.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah. I mean, like I said before, everything worries me, and that's something that does worry me, kind of what precedent the Supreme Court may or may not set with this case. And it's something that has existed, I would say, in my consciousness for a while because this trial was going on while I was a student. I've graduated now and been graduated for over a year and a half. And now I'm waiting for this decision. So there are many aspects in which I've spent several years kind of watching this play out. I'm interested to see what happens. I pray and hope that there is a decision that respects the importance of diversity in our institutions. But we'll see. I think we're in a really precarious position.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was just very focused on diversity and social justice issues. But at the end of the day, when you look at kind of the holistic situation of the American educational school system, it heavily others children of color, regardless of where you are. I have visited schools that are majority students of color, and yet you look at the books that they're reading, you look at who they're studying, and you would never know that the majority of these students are immigrants. You never know the majority of the students look differently than the people on their covers. And so I think from the ground up, we have to build institutions for students that reflect all the walks of life that they are.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The pause of my voice is, I have for all of my life whenever I've been educated been in institutions that are historically light. And so, yes, it's challenging, but it's also kind of the waters that I swim in for most of my life, especially as a woman of color striving to be a writer. So in the case of high school, I think it was challenging. I think having my sister there definitely helped me. But when you go from an environment like that to Harvard, which is as historically white as it gets, that same struggle continues on. And I'm sure that will exist for me if I go to grad school or whatever, that I will be walking in buildings and systems and institutions that were built so that someone like me couldn't be there. And of course, I'm very fortunate because my high school, middle school, elementary school was New Road.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To children and the school system to give them access to as much knowledge, literacy as we can. And we can't do that if we're only presenting them with an incredibly small and biased Constructive sample of literary voices that doesn't get us anywhere.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Everything worries me. Everything worries me, to be honest. And I think you're hitting a really important null, which is I think the significance of this and as well the backlogs that we're seeing against the desire to have literature in a classroom that represents the students that are there. I think there's this idea that some, let's say, naysayers against representation and literature have, which is why would I just read someone because they're black. Why would I just read someone because they're Latinx? I'm like, no, we should be reading them because they're great, because they're excellent at what they do. And they happen to be black. They happen to be Latinx. But those small measures of difference are keeping a wealth of resources and knowledge outside of classrooms in our students. So I think of it more as an issue of we eliminate.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At past 6 a.m. rather than writing. And so they've seen the grind. And I think when you witness someone go after what they love, it's hard to feel a kind of toxic negativity towards that because that journey is as much. Yours because you've been on it.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, you know, I almost feel incorrect speaking for her. What I can say is I would imagine that it's hard for her and anyone. I have people in my life who are friends and not my twins and sometimes they'll get a residency or something like that. I'm like, ah, dar, I wish I got that. And it's, you know, difficult, but I do think she handles it with grace and kind of the best intention that she can. And my family as a whole beyond her has just been so supportive. And I think what helps in that feeling of, you know, not necessarily comparing and feeling kind of green faced with envy is my family has seen me from the beginning. They've seen me in the bathroom for hours trying to say my last name. They've seen me for hours going to speech therapy for all of my life. They've seen me when I was five years old. My mom would have to pay me a quarter for every morning I stayed in bed.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah. Like I said, I wish I'd invited the whole family so that we can have had this conversation as a three-person group because I would have, you know, I'd just like to hear from her mouth. What I will say is when you go up as a twin, that issue of wanting to be seen as your own person as opposed to a unit that's part of someone else, that's something that we've had to work through and process since birth. And so while the inauguration's attention that I bestowed on me was new, that challenge of us being our own person while being sisters has always been there. I think it's made a strong refer it. And so I think the way that she handles it is celebrating me and what I've received while also honoring her own art, which is filmmaking. She loves directing and saying that”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I said, asking myself, is this a poem I would like to read and I would like to have out in the world? And that is honestly when I ask myself what the inaugural poem. When I was writing it, I wasn't even sure if I was still going to recite the poem because we had just had an insurrection at the Capitol Steps. And so I told myself, I'm still going to write this poem regardless if one or a million people see this because this needs to be put to paper for me to continue on and have peace in my mind.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. Well, I think what this gets to is, I honestly think my heart is criticized as myself before I even worry about what other people are going to think about my writing, I have to respect myself and I have to value that. And that's hard. And so I think my own voice of self-estimation tends to be much larger and louder than worrying about what other people might think. But that insecurity can definitely be there. Absolutely. I think especially because I entered the American consciousness in such a specific way, but happened in six minutes at this really important, powerful chapter in our history and to try to exceed that or surpass that for any audience or any reader of mine. That's a, I think, huge expectation and pressure that I can carry with me. And so I think the way that I remain grounded around those questions and anxiety is like.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“100% 150%. I think I'm always comparing myself against what I've done. And I try to live my life where the most recent poem I've written is my favorite poem in the sense that I hope I'm always growing and challenging myself in new ways because if I'm doing the same things I was doing three, four years ago. I mean, that's okay. But I don't see a lot of kind of expansion happening. And so I do try to look at my own body of work and always say if it's not hurting and challenging when I'm writing something, that means I'm not pushing myself enough. And that's not in a kind of self-sadistic way to more so in pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. Writing is an exhilarating thing, but it's not always comfortable when you're trying something new.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Her riding idols should go to war against previous writing. And it really feels like we're showing up to fight for something you feel is worthy to be ridden.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm glad you do. You feel my pain. It's not something that can be taken away by aspirin. And, you know, it's still, I mean, the amount of literal sweat, tears, and blood that I produce when I'm writing, I love this writer named Madeleine Miller. And she says that she would go to war against.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“100% 100%. And I think what you just said to sum up the creative process. You really are pushing this thing up a hill and moving backwards a lot of the times. And I think there's this idea that the more famous or landed or well-paid you get, the easier the process becomes. And I definitely think resources and power and control can help you have kind of those sources of income, et cetera, et cetera, that help make writing possible. But at the end of the day, it's still you against this vicious white page. It can be so hard. And I think unless you try it I feel you.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, yeah, and I just love looking at those. And I think some of the few examples that I bring up, for example, would be the way in which poetry and rhyme and lyricism was used in the underground railroad or by slaves to plot their escape. We're not talking about poetry for the sake of being flowery and beautiful. A lot of those negro spirituals are gorgeous, they are immaculate. But if you look at them structurally, they're coded messages about how to escape. They are missives that can be recited orally to a population that doesn't have accurate accessibility to books and to reading and literacy. And so all of a sudden spoken word becomes this enormous weapon. And I think that's just one of the many examples through history in which people looked at sound, rhythm, rhyme, poetry. As a real kind of blade to strike back.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hopefully, it worked out okay for me. I studied sociology because I knew I am always going to be a writer. I'm always going to be a poet. No one or nothing can take that away from me, but I have to carve out a space for me to be a historian. I have to carve out space for me to ask sociological inquiries.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah. I mean, where do I start? I mean, that's such a juicy question. I guess I'll dive in is from a young age, I think because of the household I was growing up in, because of the value system that my mom was bringing, I was always looking for ways in which I could spot how Language functions as a mechanism of social change, and that's something that I brought with me. And when I went to college, I know there are so many of my family and friends who were like, okay, she's going to go study English. Like that's what she do and kind of, I did it. I did not, which, you know.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was like, wow, I really just ghosted and questioned the president. But the majority of what they had to say to me was just how excited that I was going to be there. They had been one of the few who read my poem before I performed it and they said they really were looking forward to it being a part of the ceremony.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“She spotted me exactly. She was the one who was essentially, I know this poet that I've seen in videos, and I want to see if she can be the inaugural poet. And she had this background in English. And so when I spoke with the first lady and the president over the phone, one, I almost missed the recall because I didn't recognize the phone number. I was like, I'm not picking up the phone because I don't know who this weird person is. I'm about to get on a flight to go to DC and I pick it up and he's like, hey.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, we didn't, though. He did call me a few days before the inauguration with First Lady Dr. Joe Biden Who I should say actually owe the majority of my thanks to not just a president Biden because she was the one.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Them if they had a book on poetry and they didn't know what I was saying, and I had to repeat myself again and again until I mimed the motion of writing. Did they understand, oh, this is what she's asking for. And so I basically developed strategies and tools and instruments in which I could still participate in my poetry, but find other ways to make sure my meaning was getting across.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's some R's in there, and it's the R that I struggled with the longest was R. And I would try to wrap those lyrics back and imagine that I was on stage with those performers. And by doing that every day, I slowly was able to say, and so when you see me on stage and see, I gesticulate a lot. I think a lot of times people assume that's all sign language, maybe, you know, one or two or three words from American Sign Language emerge in my poetry, but a lot of it is mostly improvised kind of just interpretive movements of my hands. And that arose from ever since I was little, if I was at a store and needed something or having a conversation with a person, I often had to kind of mime out what I was saying because people didn't understand. I remember being 12 and going to a bookstore and asking.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think a lot of it arose from that. I love that you played that clip of James Earl Jones to also think of Sidney Poitier. I remember reading about when I was young and how he would listen to recordings and voices to try to improve his accent. That was huge for me hearing about that when I was in fifth grade. I remember my Poetry as a form of speech therapy. So is there a way in which by writing and reciting poetry I can actually teach myself and my brain and my mouth to recite words in the way that I would like? So one of the ways that I did that was by listening to Hamilton in the song Aaron Burr Sir, which rhymes the Mars.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it's this interesting kind of intersection of xenophobia that was assumed from my having what people thought was an accent, but was actually an issue of speech. And so I think that stung more than anything. I was born here. I love English. I'm very fluent in English. But the idea that there's no way I could belong because I dropped my Rs.”
2023-01-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 518 — Amanda Gorman · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source