Whose shoulders do you stand on?

In what was quite possibly the most exciting point in Super Bowl LV, Amanda Gorman took to the stage again to recite an original poem marking yet another first for the 22 year old since the beginning of 2021 (first Poet to present at the Super Bowl!).  Her first of what will no doubt be many firsts took place in 2014 when at 16 years old she became Los Angeles’ youth poet laureate and three years later the nation’s youngest poet laureate. She then, at 22 years old, became the youngest poet to write and recite a piece at a presidential inauguration, following in the remarkable footsteps of Maya Angelou and Robert Frost. In this TED-ED video from 2018, Amanda Gorman talks about how we can all use our art to tell our stories and why it is so important that we consider two important questions as we do.

One, Whose shoulders do we stand on?

Two, What do we stand for?