There is no disputing that social media often highlights the worst of us. Analyzing our social media usage uncovers a society obsessed with scantily clad highly photoshopped images and cancel culture vultures circling around their next victim. Perhaps that’s why it was so refreshing last January to see a different kind of viral shooting star. The twenty three year old youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman seemed to appear out of nowhere after her inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb”. Almost instantaneously she was the talk of the internet. She even overshadowed Lady Gaga (that’s a lot of star power to overshadow). Overnight her Twitter and Instagram followers exploded.
I am the daughter of Black writers who are descended from Freedom Fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.
– Amanda Gorman
The Hill We Climb by Amanda Goreman
When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. We've braved the belly of the beast, We've learned that quiet isn't always peace, and the norms and notions of what just is isn't always just-ice. And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished. We the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one. And yes we are far from polished. Far from pristine. But that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge a union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true, that even as we grieved, we grew, that even as we hurt, we hoped, that even as we tired, we tried, that we'll forever be tied together, victorious. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division. Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid. If we're to live up to our own time, then victory won't lie in the blade. But in all the bridges we've made, that is the promise to glade, the hill we climb. If only we dare. It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it's the past we step into and how we repair it. We've seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it. Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated. In this truth, in this faith we trust. For while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption we feared at its inception. We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour but within it we found the power to author a new chapter. To offer hope and laughter to ourselves. So while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? Now we assert, How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us? We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be. A country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free. We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation, because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation. Our blunders become their burdens. But one thing is certain, If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy, and change our children's birthright. So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left with. Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west. We will rise from the windswept northeast, where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states. We will rise from the sunbaked south. We will rebuild, reconcile and recover. And every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful will emerge, battered and beautiful. When day comes we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid, the new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light, if only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it.
We were collectively captivated by the care and poise she put into each word. This is no small feat; the world has grown accustomed to giving only 280 characters worth of attention. Normally the internet hangs on to the negative, the gaffes, and the inflammatory. Now we were holding our breath listening to poetry. Her hand gestures hypnotized us; they were more articulate and carried more depth than any viral TikTok dance challenge could command. Can this dazzling young woman hold our attention and be the internet sensation we actually need?
Goreman, with her charismatic charm, could be seen as a prototype for a path to success that hasn’t really been exploited yet via social media. She’s young enough and carries enough dazzle to reach out to a younger audience that has been photographing avocado toast and aspiring to be famous. She encourages us to “break out of the pathology that poetry is only owned by certain elites” and she’s doing exactly that by bringing poetry to social media. She’s also changing what a poet looks like. Her Instagram account shows she’s just another 23 year old girl and still needs the occasional mirror selfie. These quirks may seem superficial, but it’s what we need for her art and message to be relatable to a new generation that has grown up with this ultra-documented kind of daily life.
Before she goes on to perform she recites “I am the daughter of Black writers who are descended from Freedom Fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me.” It’s true that Gorman is a descendant of her ancestors but also a global phenomena operating in the context of our digital age.
It’s on my iPhone that I flip through the photos that accompany her latest interview. She is the first poet to be featured on the cover of Vogue magazine. She clearly has a touch for fashion and my normally cynical self would be rolling my eyes at another fashionista in couture clothing on social media. However this time I can’t help but listen. Perhaps because this time there’s something to hear. I have admittingly become blasé to anything that reads positive vibes only or any of the other heartfelt messages that millennial internet stars have come to represent. However, Gorman is not copying and pasting social media mantras, she’s creating a new space and the creation has depth. She has turned down millions of dollars in endorsements because they don’t align with what she believes. It’s a message the internet needs to hear. In recent years, any internet fame has immediately turned into paid sponsorships. Our reality stars have taught us it doesn’t matter how you become famous as long as you become famous. It’s a breath of fresh air when someone proves you can become famous and glamorous by being brave and intelligent, articulate and poised. It’s even better when young black women can identify with the person they are seeing rise to stardom.
Even more unlikely than the cover of Vogue, Gorman is the first poet to perform at the Super Bowl. Yes, I repeat, a poet at the Super Bowl. “I did it because of what I thought it would mean for poetry in the country” she comments about the job. Football is a sport more associated with binge eating nachos and chugging beer so the idea that a poem should be performed is enough reason for me to say she scored a touchdown. Our arts need a good dusting off and to be actively shared with an audience that would not normally seek them out. Gorman says in her Times magazine interview with Michelle Obama “never underestimate the power of art as the language of the people.” We are all ears at the moment, and I hope we continue to listen.
While talking to Vogue magazine her mother mentioned that her social media will not be featuring photos of her partying or in a bikini poolside. You definitely get a sense that Gorman is editorial in how she presents herself to the world. How refreshing to see someone polished and striving for a higher self after the onslaught of reality television personas where we feast upon the unfiltered look at just how ineloquent and average we can be as a species.
It’s murky waters where social media and social justice meet. The internet has a choir of anonymous opinions creating a lot of noise but leaving many to wonder if anything is actually being done. So much so that a new term, slacktivism, has emerged from the muck. Slacktivism is described as the act of getting behind a social movement through social media with very little real effort. For many a simple hashtag or reposting a viral photo is enough. Even more self-indulgent is calling out a celebrity for slipping up. What many of us are left wondering however is what can we do? Gorman is the influence we need by illustrating that we can use our art to serve a larger purpose.
I was struck by a comment she made in a recent interview with Oprah, in which she said “unity for the sake of unity without interrogation can just be toxic mob mentality”. This strikes me as so relevant when we are faced with the cancel culture that purports to serve a higher purpose. The internet has created more creators than ever before. Photographers, writers, comedians, dancers, and many more that have taken to social media platforms need to take note; we are a generation of “content creators” but have yet to produce a generation of artists. Hopefully, we can take creation and turn it into an art that serves a higher purpose, and why not a selfie from time to time?
