Amanda Gorman, the brilliant twenty-two year old poet, stole the show at yesterday’s inauguration. If you haven’t yet watched her perform the original poem she wrote, it really is stunning.

I found this bit of her biography all the more impressive.

Gorman was named the nation’s First Youth Poet Laureate at the age of 19. At 16, she was Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, where she was raised by Joan, a single mother and an English teacher. Gorman said writing became her way to overcome a daunting obstacle.

“I had a speech impediment. And so I couldn’t use my voice, then I would author my voice on the page. So it’s really been a godsend and a lifeline for me,” she said.

Gorman said poetry and spoken words became her own type of pathology.

“And so once I arrived at the point in my life in high school, where I said, ‘you know what? Writing my poems on the page isn’t enough for me. I have to give them breath, and life, I have to perform them as I am.’ That was the moment that I was able to grow past my speech impediment,” she said.

Gorman, who had particular trouble with the letter “R,” used music as therapy.

“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,'” she said

When Mason asked what she felt when she was performing poems, Gorman replied: “When I am on stage, I feel electric. I feel like I could breathe fire…like I am summoning the energy not only of myself but of my ancestors.”

Recall that President Biden overcame his own speech impediment and has, for decades, quietly worked to help others.