Amanda Gorman to Debut New Poem at DNC, Shares Ethereal Inspiration | Vanity Fair

Amanda Gorman made history as the youngest-ever inaugural poet at President Joe Biden’s festivities in 2021, where the then-22-year-old performed “The Hill We Climb.” She’ll return to the national political stage Wednesday evening at the Democratic National Convention, when she performs a brand new poem in support of Biden’s vice president, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

Speaking to Vanity Fair exclusively as she arrived at the United Center in Chicago to rehearse, Gorman shared her nerves ahead of debuting the poem, “This Sacred Scene.”

“It’s such a big convention,” she said. “I’m used to speaking at one-time, one-day events. This is a four-day magical convening of so many other speakers that I want to really do justice to the occasion.”

And that occasion, Harris’s historic and hurried campaign, is one Gorman is personally thrilled about as a Californian and a woman of color. She had been ruminating on a poem around a Biden incumbent run, in case she was invited for a repeat appearance, then scrapped that poem and started over with Harris and the atmosphere of change and unity as her inspiration. A few days ago, she said, DNC officials confirmed their invitation for her to speak.

“I'm still just so proud that they remembered and committed and even through a change in administration, they wanted poetry represented at the DNC,” she said.

“The only way I can describe it is when a poem is kind of first born, in my head, I can kind of see its colors and flavors a little bit. So I might not have words or phrases, but I know the tonology. I know kind of the aura of what I want to encapsulate,” she said of her process. “I kind of had that in the back of my head for earlier this spring and summer, and then when the presidential candidacy changed over all of a sudden, the colors and narrative the poem in my head changed because it became 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. 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.”

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“The title is ‘This Sacred Scene,’ and you'll hear that pop up in the poem,” she said. “I did not think of that ahead of time. I didn't sit down and say, ‘Let me write about this sacred scene,’ but 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. 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.”

“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.”

She was also inspired by something beyond this world: A few weeks ago, Gorman said, she had the opportunity to speak over Zoom with astronaut Mike Barratt, who is conducting medical research on the International Space Station.

“He showed me the view of the planet from the porthole and how they've been watching Earth as they pass by in their shuttle. That was so inspiring, because at that moment, I had started over from scratch on my poem, when I had no idea what to write, especially at a time that feels so divisive,” she said. “But having that moment for him to literally watch Planet Earth from space left such a huge impact on me, and I think in the language of the poem, you'll see that shine through.”

While she hasn’t yet met Harris in person, Gorman said that the candidate has stoked her own pre-existing political aspirations and interest in, in her words, “serving my country in a way beyond poetry.”

"I, like so many other people, have questioned whether there would be a female president in my lifetime," she said. "I questioned whether there be a female president of color my lifetime, which is also why I was like, if it doesn't happen, I'll just run in 2036 and see what happens. And so when we had this smooth and compassionate and non-egotistical transition of power between a white male incumbent to a talented Black Indian female state leader, I was so thrilled, because it meant, not only do I believe in Kamala Harris, but there was a huge contingent of people who were willing to put faith in that type of figure and commence in believing that we don't have to all look the same to lead."

Gorman also teased that while she won’t be wearing Prada tonight, as she did at Biden’s inauguration, we should "expect to see a really intentional fashion moment," teasing a symbolic color choice.

"I still want to put my best foot and shoe and dress forward for the DNC," she said. "And so I really hope that makes a statement in itself."