Good morning LA
There were many luminaries yesterday’s inauguration events, from President-elect and vice-president-elect to Lady Gaga, J. Lo and Garth Brooks.
But among all of them, the Poet Amanda Gorman, 22 He stood out. With her stunning words and swan gestures, she brought the Americans together around a moment of great division look to a future based on strength, survival and hope:
So, while asking, “How could we prevail over the catastrophe?”
Now, we say, “How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?”
We will not march back to what it was, but we will move to what will be
A bruised country, but whole
Benevolent, but bold, fierce and free.
Although the world may have just been introduced to Gorman yesterday, it was known as a rising star in LA for years.
AN native of West LA, Gorman was raised by a single mother and attended New Roads School in Santa Monica. Gorman has described her childhood like “this incredibly strange intersection in Los Angeles, where it looked like the black hood found black elegance with white gentrification, Latin culture with swamps”.
At 14, Gorman joined WriteGirl, a local non-profit organization that provides written guidance for girls and young women. Michelle Chahine Sinno, who was Gorman’s mentor at WriteGirl for two years, told my colleague Caroline Champlin that the talent of the young poet was always evident.
“The way she sees the world is incredible,” she said, “from the mundane to the present, talking about democracy.”
Gorman became the first Young Laureate Poet in Los Angeles and later the first National Young Laureate Poet. And although many have heard his words for the first time today, Gorman has always believed in the power of poetry, and of young people, to overcome divisions.
“We know, at the very least, that poetry is powerful,” she wrote in a Rehearsal 2014 for The Huffington Post. “Youth is powerful. Combined, we produce enough energy to move and change the world. “
Read on to learn more about what’s happening in LA today, and stay safe outside.
What else you need to know today
Before I go … What is a coat?
In its most basic terms, it is “an outer garment worn on the upper body” that varies “in length and style according to fashion and use”. (Thank you, Merriam-Webster.) But between the naturally warm weather here in Los Angeles and the increasingly hot winters caused by climate change, many of us who live here may have forgotten how to dress.
And yet, there they were, in a dazzling array of colors and styles at Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th President of the United States.
So, what is this strange outfit, and who won the discreet battle of outerwear in yesterday’s socially distant festivities?
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