After a star turn at Joe Biden’s inauguration turned Amanda Gorman into a viral sensation and headband influencer, the 22-year-old poet got the opportunity to bring her work to an even larger audience. As a part of the pregame ceremony for Super Bowl LV, Gorman read a poem that honored the heroes of the pandemic and discussed the country’s losses while underscored by dramatic music. Wearing a shimmery and embossed blue coat by Moschino, she referenced the pain and loss of the pandemic in a hopeful lilt full of internal rhyme.
“So while we honor them,” she said of frontline workers, “It is they, every day, who honor us.”
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On January 27, the NFL announced that Gorman would read a poem as a tribute to a group of ordinary citizens who were selected as the game’s honorary captains. They selected three Americans who got attention for their good works during the pandemic: Suzie Dorner, a Tampa Bay ICU nurse; Trimaine Davis, a Los Angeles teacher who helped his students secure internet for remote learning; and James Martin, a Marine veteran who led a Wounded Warrior Project to use technology to decrease social isolation.
Gorman first came to prominence when she was selected for a one-year term as the first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. Decked in head-to-toe Prada at the inauguration podium on January 20, Gorman read a poem called the “The Hill We Climb,” which will be released as a book next month, with a preface by Oprah. On Twitter last month, Gorman said that her agreement to read at the Super Bowl actually predated her invitation to perform at the inauguration.
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It’s just the beginning of a busy year for the young artist, who graduated from Harvard last spring. In September, she will release a collection of her poetry and a children’s book. A few days after the inauguration, the modeling agency IMG announced that it had signed Gorman, who has spoken about her interest in fashion in the past.
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