Meet Poet Amanda Gorman From the 2021 Inauguration
Get to Know Amanda Gorman, the Young Poet Who Stunned at the 2021 Inauguration
2
Gorman has something in common with the man whose inauguration she performed at: like Biden, she has dealt with a speech impediment.
"I couldn't use my voice, then I would author my voice on the page. So it's really been a godsend and a lifeline for me," she told CBS News ahead of the inauguration. "And so once I arrived at the point in my life in high school, where I said, 'you know what? Writing my poems on the page isn't enough for me. I have to give them breath, and life, I have to perform them as I am.' That was the moment that I was able to grow past my speech impediment."