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This board exists primarily for the use of Black Mumsnetters. Others are welcome to post but please be respectful.

Original poster

Amanda Gorman - Biden Inauguration

49 replies

Rege · 21/01/2021 13:07

Can we celebrate the amazing talent of national youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman yesterday? never heard of her until yesterday, I thought she was awesome and felt so proud. My DC response - 'i'm inspired'!

OP posts:
NLisa · 21/01/2021 13:09

👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Yes she was amazing

Original poster
Rege · 21/01/2021 13:24

Coupled with the fact she has SEN including a speech impediment, her performance was flawless and her writing top class.

OP posts:
Chambored · 21/01/2021 13:26

She was wonderful.
I saw this on the BBC which gives a bit more info on her.
Amanda Gorman: Inauguration poet calls for 'unity and togetherness' www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55738564

TokyoSushi · 21/01/2021 13:27

She was just fabulous!

warriorwomanx · 21/01/2021 13:27

I was going to post about this yesterday!
The whole inauguration, the firefighter, JLO etc was incredible. My neighbours must've thought I'd gone mad screaming and clapping Grin
But Amanda was something else! So proud of her, what an amazing young lady

Purpletomato · 21/01/2021 13:33

She has a book releasing in September, it's shot up the Amazon pre-order list since yesterday.

AlexaShutUp · 21/01/2021 13:35

Sorry, not a black MNetter and don't usually post on this board, but saw the thread and had to come on and say that she was amazing. So poised and so talented. And only 22!Shock

SchrodingersUnicorn · 21/01/2021 13:40

Likewise not a black mumsnetter but saw the thread on active. I teach in an area with a large black population and my A level classes are over 50% black pupils. I really want to show them (especially my sixth form girls) this, she was just so inspiring! Do you think this would be ok for me (as a white woman) to show them in tutor time? I'd love to hear their thoughts on her poetry and performance.

Original poster
Rege · 21/01/2021 13:42

@AlexaShutUp Thank you Smile
@warriorwomanx I could feel the hairs at the back of my neck stand up when she was reading. A simply stunning performance. On the more trivial side, her hair was amazing too, whoever did it for her did a work of art! I'd never seen a hair band worn like that before and I think she may have started a trend.

OP posts:
Original poster
Rege · 21/01/2021 13:45

@SchrodingersUnicorn I think it would be a fantastic piece to show them. As I was telling my dc yesterday, she is also young so close to them in age and more likely to inspire them than say a more mature black poet. They were dissecting/appreciating her writing to pieces on (I think it was CNN) from a literary point and they couldn't fault it.

OP posts:
SchrodingersUnicorn · 21/01/2021 13:48

Thankyou. I will show them tomorrow. That she is only 4 or 5 years older than them will resonate I hope.

Shosha1 · 21/01/2021 13:51

Another not black mumsnetter, but saw her name and had to come comment.
I'm a grandmother in her 60's who was a childminder for 40 years, and I couldn't have been prouder of this younger lady if she had been one of mine. Im back homeschooling at the moment and took time out to show my charges her performance yesterday.
She is just so inspiring and a person to look up to whatever your colour or creed. Amazing.

Lookingforwardto2021 · 21/01/2021 13:55

Agree, she was amazing! Not sure why post in black MN though. She is an amazing young woman and this thread should be in general chat, imo

AdoraBell · 21/01/2021 13:56

Same as Alexa, I’m not black and haven’t posted here before.

Just wanted to say yes Amanda Gorman is amazing and her performance was truly inspiring.

lughnasadh · 21/01/2021 14:04

She really was amazing.

I'm not black, not English either.

Everything seemed right, from the shade of her jacket, to her youth, to her words. She embodied a greater spirit.

The embodiment of hope in a great and powerful nation. A nation which could choose to do great good, and has people ready to put will in to action.

SingingSands · 21/01/2021 14:17

The Guardian printed her poem and I've printed it out and stuck it above my desk. What a talent.

Original poster
Rege · 21/01/2021 14:32

@Lookingforwardto2021

Agree, she was amazing! Not sure why post in black MN though. She is an amazing young woman and this thread should be in general chat, imo
So where's your thread about her then?
OP posts:
AlexaShutUp · 21/01/2021 14:43

For those who haven't already done so, I highly recommend finding the text of the poem online and re-reading it. I loved hearing Amanda Gorman recite it at the inauguration, but I got even more out of it when I went back to read it again. There is so much depth and wisdom in it. She is a really inspiring young woman.

Lookingforwardto2021 · 21/01/2021 15:01

@Rege, good point 😊 it is a bit disheartening that a thread about this talented woman is on black Mumsnet. I would have thought there would be quite a few threads about her dotted around.

DH and I were comparing her with Marcus. Not because they are black, but because they are both of a similar age and equally inspiring. And we really loved her confidence but thought it was quite an American thing. Marcus is equally amazing but sooo much more British. Can’t imagine him saying, yup, I’d like to be PM one day (although he totally should be PM!). 😃

I realise after seeing the inauguration I do find the American belief in themselves and their confidence quite comforting. Biden said something about them being victorious and having met the challenges of the time. It feels good to hear that optimism

warriorwomanx · 21/01/2021 17:10

@Rege I have literally just taken out my Senegalese twists, doing them again now and wearing them like hers, so classy!
Honestly, it was like watching the royal wedding and Doria with her locs all over again!

To the pp wandering why this is posted on Black Mumsnetters, this comment is one of many reasons why.

warriorwomanx · 21/01/2021 17:13

The whole inauguration was inspiring to black women everywhere. We were represented in numbers I've never seen before. My DD is only a baby so she had no idea what she was clapping along for, but as a young woman of 25 myself, I feel honoured to have witnessed this in my lifetime, in a country where a 14 year old black boy was lynched because of a lie by a white woman in the same year my dad was born, just wow.

dudsville · 21/01/2021 17:31

I was just scrolling for threads about the inauguration and came on to say yes, omg she was fabulous!

And isn't it ok that this thread is in Black Mumsnetters? I mean we can all see it.

Does anyone know of we can watch the show Tom Hanks hosted?

dudsville · 21/01/2021 18:41

(I've found it via PBS, it's full of hope.)

Thurlow · 21/01/2021 21:13

Another non-black poster who was searching for comments on her. That poem was beautiful. I know she is writing from her experience of black America, but what moved me the most was how I felt her words spoke to everyone was well, whatever race, whatever country - this amazing, empowering diatribe of hope and awareness and ambition and desire. It was just wonderful, and it was her delivery which made it so.

StarAmandaGorman · 21/01/2021 21:20

There you go @Lookingforwardto2021

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4142720-To-adore-Amanda-Gorman

I agree, I don't think she should be hidden away in a niche board just because she's black. This is also worth the mainstream boards.

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