Amanda Gorman Covers TIME Magazine

Amanda Gorman can’t be stopped. The nation’s youngest inaugural poet who already landed a modeling gig and national admiration is on the cover of TIME.

Gorman is the cover star for the mag that partnered with Dr Ibram X. Kendi to focus on the “third great cultural revival of Black Americans, The Black Renaissance. TIME reports that after the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and after the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, The Black Renaissance began with 2020’s racial reckoning.

Gorman who’s clearly part of the Renaissance with her poetry was interviewed by Forever FLOTUS Michelle Obama and asked about Black art.

Michelle Obama: “We’re here to talk about the current renaissance in Black art—this surge of creativity we’ve seen over the past six years or so. What do you make of calling this period a “renaissance”? And where do you see yourself within it?”

Amanda Gorman: “We’re living in an important moment in Black art because we’re living in an important moment in Black life. Whether that’s looking at what it means politically to have an African-­American President before Trump, or looking at what it means to have the Black Lives movement become the largest social movement in the United States. What’s been exciting for me is I get to absorb and to live in that creation I see from other African-­American artists that I look up to. But then I also get to create art and participate in that historical record…. In all the forms of expression of human life, we’re seeing that artistry be informed by the Black experience. I can’t imagine anything more exciting than that.”

Amanda also recited her inaugural poem “The Hills We Climb” for TIME.

Inside the publication, a group of panelists highlighted works that encompass The Black Renaissance. The panelists who chose pieces like Donald Glover’s “Atlanta”, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me” and “I May Destroy You” by Michaela Coel include brolic branded comedians and late-night hosts Desus and Mero, Oscar-winning filmmaker Matthew A. Cherry, award-winning author, and historian Ibram X. Kendi, Oscar-nominated filmmaker and distributor Ava DuVerney, filmmaker and producer Dream Hampton, and award-winning actor and producer Tessa Thompson.

You can see the full list HERE.