THE POWER OF POETRY:
Spoken word fuels movements, past and present by Tara Davoodi
22
On Jan. 20, we watched as 22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman effortlessly painted a picture of a hopeful, though still fractured, America. Much of the country, we later found, had clung to her every word as she spoke of unity and division, justice and violence. We watched and rewatched, read and reread her poem “The Hill We Climb,” which expressed a collective vision of America and perfectly captured the painful emotions of the past four years. Gorman’s job was no easy task. First Lady Jill Biden asked her to write and perform a poem for the 2021 inauguration, a
White House tradition that began in 1961 when Robert Frost spoke at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. Gorman also had to contend with the deep wounds of a country still reeling from four years of divisive knowledging its racist roots. Poetry has always been a part of social and political movements. Whether it was delivering the surging modernist school of thought in the 1920s or the revolutionary remained a means of documenting history and providing words of encouragement,
criticism or wisdom. In my own experiences with poetry, I’ve learned that the spoken word does more than simply create an outlet for the poet; it I signed up to take a virtual poetry class with the Bethesda Writer’s Center. I’ve always loved reading and writing poetry, and I thought the class would shake up my monotonous quarantine routine. er asked us to bring a poem to share with the group. I selected Elizabeth Alexander’s “Praise Song for the Day,” which was writ-
