MESSAGES FROM MEREDITH HILL Connecting Our School Community VOL. 2, ISSUE 20 FEBRUARY 12, 2021

Hello, Orca families!

As we continue to celebrate Black History Month, this week’s newsletter highlights two African American women who have shared their amazing poetry at two different United States Presidential inaugurations.

Dr. Maya Angelou Amanda Gorman was, among many things, a is a poet and activist. poet and author whose works Though a recent reflected Black culture and graduate of Harvard were mostly autobiographical. College, she started Perhaps her most notable writing her first book work, I Know Why the Caged when she was a young Bird Sings uses the caged bird teen. to represent enslaved people who were chained and their She became the first freedom not permitted. National Youth Poet Laureate, a title awarded to “a young person who Dr. Angelou was also a civil rights activist and demonstrates skill in the arts, particularly poetry worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the and/or spoken word, is a strong leader, is Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). committed to social justice, and is active in civic discourse and advocacy.” As a young child, she didn't talk for almost five years following a traumatic experience. During that time, As a young child, while Amanda participated in her love for books grew as did her ability to listen speech therapy for auditory and verbal challenges, and observe the world around her, including racial her reading and writing skills flourished. injustices. Twenty-eight years after Dr. Maya Angelou spoke Dr. Angelou wrote and recited her America-themed at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, Amanda poem, On the Pulse of Morning, for President Bill Gorman recited her own poem at President Joe Clinton’s first inauguration on January 20, 1993. Her Biden’s January 20, 2021 inauguration. She said poem “emphasized unity despite the diversity of her poem, The Hill We Climb was meant to American culture” and her performance gained her “represent a moment of unity for our country … even more fame and recognition — across racial and speak to a new chapter and era for our boundaries. nation.” Her performance gained her an enormous amount of public recognition. Dr. Angelou supported President Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. After he won she stated, “We Amanda embraces the power of her words as a are growing up beyond the idiocies of racism and young black woman to inspire others. She herself sexism.” intends to run for president in 2036.

Dr. Angelou continued creating written works until her death at age 86 in 2014.