Amanda Gorman brought some beautiful words of inspiration to the Democratic Party on Wednesday. For the third day of the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, the National Youth Poet Laureate recited a new piece entitled ‘This Sacred Scene’ as the party celebrated the Kamala Harris – Tim Walz ticket. After President Joe Biden made her the country’s youngest-ever inaugural poet in 2021, Gorman explained to Vanity Fair what the poem means.
“I think I was trying to sit a while with what the Democratic Convention means, and more specifically, more importantly, what it means for people to gather together around shared values and principles,” said Gorman. “I think there’s something hallowed about that. I think there’s something special and also old about that that digs to the roots of who we are as human beings.
I wanted to speak to that importance of unity which, for me, transcends party.” She added, “The scene is the moment, it’s the history, it’s the precedence, the future, it’s what we’re coming from and what we’re building. And so when I wrote that line, and I was thinking more so what it means to pause at a moment in time and stare at the future and dare to believe in something different.
” Gorman was originally invited to speak at the DNC when Biden was set to run for re-election, explaining that the change in ticket inspired the poem to become “something that represented what I was seeing in real time.” “I, for one, was not surprised, but pleasantly impressed by the amount of support and fundraising Kamala Harris was able to do so quickly,” said Gorman. “And so the poem changed its methodology a little bit, from celebrating an incumbent to expressing hope for what could be, especially at the idea of having a Black-Indian woman be president.
” On Tuesday night, Harris and Walz accepted the Democratic nomination following roll call at the DNC, appearing together virtually from a campaign rally in Milwaukee..
