#the hill we climb

[odinsblog]

At this point, Florida Republicans and fragile white Republican voters are just flat out targeting any books written by Black authors who refuse to sing “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” and whitewash away the past.

This is racist erasure.

Here is the IG link to Amanda Gorman’s donations page.

[bitchybylershipper]

florida is wildin okay so do you guys know the poem the hill we climb by amanda gorman? if you dont you should read it or listen to it. context: she read it at bidens swearing in in 2021 and it was like this huge thing. i really like the poem and it was very inspirational to many americans. ANYWAY. florida fucking banned it. this is the complaint form

the "indirect hate messages" in question:

florida will literally ban anything this is ridiculous. all of the sources i have are from may and june of last year so i dont know if its still banned (it probably is) but i just wanted to talk about it for a sec because cencorship fucking pisses me off

[jamietarttsnorthernattitude]

The infuriatingly talented @jamiesfootball asked people to share the prose that lives rent free in their head.

For me it’s "The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman. Here are some of my favorite bits that always inspire me.

[donnatroyprincessofthemyscira]

[songsofprotestpeacerevolution]

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, 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-limned 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 in 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.

Poet Amanda Gorman reads 'The Hill We Climb'

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Excerpt from The Hill We Climb (2020) by Amanda Gorman

In Episode 167, Rachel takes us to the National Poetry Corner.

Rachel: Like, democracy, at its core, is people kind of fighting for what they want. And there’s been a lot of that lately, and it has been kind of gross, and, uh... that doesn’t mean, necessarily, that we’re broken forever. Y'know.

Griffin: Yeah. Do you have the line—the one that stood outto me, is the... being American is more than the pride we inherit. It’s the past we step into it and how we repair it.

Rachel: That’s exactly it!

Griffin: It’s fucking incred—I heard that line once this morning, and like, it stuck with me that hard.

If you’d like to hear more about the incredible value and importance of this poem and inauguration speech, you can do so here: The Christmas Crab, from 14:34 - 25:50

[coochiequeens]

Today for Women History Month we honor the birthdays of two women in the arts, Janet Collins and Amanda Gorman

Janet Collins (March 7, 1917 – May 28, 2003) was an African American ballet dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She performed on Broadway, in films, and appeared frequently on television.[1] She was among the pioneers of black ballet dancing, one of the few classically trained Black dancers of her generation.

Janet Faye[2] Collins was born in New Orleans, and at the age of four moved with her family to Los Angeles, California, where Collins received her first dance training at a Catholic community center. She studied primarily with Carmelita Maracci, Lester Horton, and Adolph Bolm, who were among the few ballet teachers who accepted black students. She also had fond memories of studying with Los Angeles dance teacher Dorothy Lyndall.

Amanda S. C. Gorman[1] (born March 7, 1998)[2] is an American poet and activist. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She published the poetry book The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough in 2015. In 2021, she delivered her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden.

Her inauguration poem generated international acclaim, and shortly thereafter, two of her books achieved best-seller status, and she obtained a professional management contract. In February 2021, Gorman was highlighted in Time magazine's 100 Next list under the category of "Phenoms", with a profile written by��Lin-Manuel Miranda.[3] That same month, Gorman became the first poet to perform at the Super Bowl, when she delivered her poem "Chorus of the Captains" at Super Bowl LV.

Born in Los Angeles, California,[5][6] Gorman was raised by her single mother, Joan Wicks, a 6th-grade English teacher in Watts,[7] with her two siblings.[5][8] Her twin sister, Gabrielle, is an activist[9] and filmmaker.[10]Gorman has said she grew up in an environment with limited television access.[11] She has described her young self as a "weird child" who enjoyed reading and writing and was encouraged by her mother.[5]

Gorman has an auditory processing disorder and is hypersensitive to sound.[5] She also had a speech impediment during childhood.[12][13]Gorman participated in speech therapy during her childhood and Elida Kocharian of The Harvard Crimson wrote in 2018, "Gorman doesn't view her speech impediment as a crutch—rather, she sees it as a gift and a strength."[14] Gorman told The Harvard Gazette in 2018, "I always saw it as a strength because since I was experiencing these obstacles in terms of my auditory and vocal skills, I became really good at reading and writing. I realized that at a young age when I was reciting the Marianne Deborah Williamson quote that 'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure' to my mom."[1] In 2021, Gorman told CBS This Morning co-host Anthony Mason that she used songs as a form of speech therapy, and explained, "My favorite thing to practice was the song 'Aaron Burr, Sir,' from Hamilton because it is jam-packed with R's. And I said, 'if I can keep up with Leslie in this track, then I am on my way to being able to say this R in a poem."

[tomorrowusa]

A school in Ron DeSantis's Florida (where else?) banned a poem written by an African-American poet for President Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021.

Amanda Gorman, the American poet who shot to international stardom when she recited The Hill We Climb at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration, has vowed to defeat book bans in Florida after the poem was removed for reading by elementary school children in an educational institution in Miami-Dade county.

Gorman, 25, said she was “gutted” to learn that a complaint from a single parent led to her inaugural poem being banned from Bob Graham education center in Miami Lakes.

The poem was one of five books challenged by a parent of children at the school, including The ABCs of Black History and books on Cuba.

In the complaint, the parent mistakenly listed Oprah Winfrey as the author of The Hill We Climb, and said she objected to the poem because it was “not educational and have indirectly hate messages”.

Gorman hit back in a lengthy social media post.

Florida has become the book-banning capital of the US. The leaders of totalitarian countries like Iran, Russia, and North Korea are probably jealous.

Book bans have surged in Florida in the wake of a series of laws signed by the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who is poised to launch a presidential campaign. The most recent legislation, enacted earlier this month, requires schools to remove books immediately based on a complaint from a single parent.

According to PEN America, 565 books were banned in Florida schools in the 2021-22 school year.

On the subject of book censorship, the Washington Post reports that a majority of the challenges to books across the United States came from just 11 people. They apparently are ideologically driven book trolls who do little else.

Objection to sexual, LGBTQ content propels spike in book challenges An analysis of book challenges from across the nation shows the majority were filed by just 11 people

[archived link]

Ron DeSantis has explicitly said that he would like to do to the United States what he's done to Florida. Any complacency about the 2024 election needs to vanish.

The ONLY way to defeat book-banning, abortion-restricting, homophobic, pro-Russia Republicans is to vote Democratic.

DeSantis will begin his campaign with roughly $200 million in his war chest. Quibbling over minor policy differences or grumbling that a candidate is not 1,000% perfect is not an option for moderates or progressives who love democracy.

The GOP has been taken over by extremists and we need to take them at their word that they wish to take America back to the 17th century.

[randomberlinchick]

The Miami Herald, which was first to report the removal of Gorman’s poem, named the parent who had brought the complaint as Daily Salinas, who has two students at Bob Graham. She told the paper she was “not for eliminating or censoring any books” but wanted school materials to be appropriate for children. To support her complaint of indirect “hate messages” supposedly contained in The Hill We Climb, Salinas specifically referred to two pages of the published version of the poem. They read:

"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 justice." and "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.”

I'm old enough to remember when being this fucking ignorant used to be embarrassing . . .

[theprocraftinator]

by lady_scrib

[little-tiffany]

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.

Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb, An Inaugural Poem

[cinader]

Community Poetry, Banned Poetry, and Multi-media Writing

Tony speaks with Randy Gonzales, Poet, Writer, Community Historian, about his latest book Settling St. Malo. In the second hour I return to a conversation I began with writer, Nilsa Rivera, back in Episode 5 of this season, before Listen & Be Heard ventur

Randy Gonzales, Nilsa Rivera, Amanda Gorman Listen & Be Heard – Episode 34 Subscribe at Spotify Subscribe at Apple Subscribe at Google Summing up… Tony speaks with Randy Gonzales, Poet, Writer, Community Historian, about his latest book Settling St. Malo. In the second hour I return to a conversation I began with writer, Nilsa Rivera, back in Episode 5 of this season, before Listen & Be…

[gwydionmisha]

The Hill We Climb - Amanda Gorman

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 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 justice.

And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.

Somehow we do it.

Somehow we 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 our union with purpose.

To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.

And so we lift our gaze, 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, become the future.

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.

Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.

We will rise from the golden 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 sun-baked 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.

[lenbryant]

Some MAGA-Mom white-supremacist snowflake can't even tell you the author's name as she's filing a complaint to have another book by an African-American author removed from her child's school. Governor Rhonda Santis has succeeded in empowering all the racists and homophobes in his state.