When asked what it means to be an American, poet Amanda Gorman says it’s more than inherited pride — it’s how we step into the past and repair it. Being American, she explains, is not just remembering history; it’s how we heal and recover it, how we hold ourselves accountable to be the best we can be.
Gorman, who read “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration when she was 22, reflects on her own American story as someone descended from slaves. That heritage, she says, teaches that freedom, equality and liberty are not guarantees but principles that must be fought for, protected and cherished. Her role as an American, she adds, is to love her own freedom and to love and defend freedom for others — to remember yesterday while walking proudly into tomorrow.