DAY 1 ~30 minutes

If you have a printer, print a copy of the poems below. Then watch Amanda Gorman perform her poems In This Place and Earthrise. What similarities do you see between the two poems? Look closely at the Amplifier poster featuring Gorman. Why do you think the tyrant fears the poet?

In This Place (An American Lyric) (2017) There’s a poem in Los Angeles yawning wide as the Pacific tide —An original poem written for the inaugural reading of where a single mother swelters Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith at the Library of Congress. in a windowless classroom, teaching There’s a poem in this place— black and brown students in Watts to spell out their thoughts in the footfalls in the halls so her daughter might write in the quiet beat of the seats. this poem for you. It is here, at the curtain of day, where America writes a lyric There’s a lyric in California you must whisper to say. where thousands of students march for blocks, undocumented and unafraid; There’s a poem in this place— where my friend Rosa finds the power to blossom in the heavy grace, in deadlock, her spirit the bedrock of her community. the lined face of this noble building, She knows hope is like a stubborn collections burned and reborn twice. ship gripping a dock, There’s a poem in Boston’s Copley Square a truth: that you can’t stop a dreamer where protest chants or knock down a dream. tear through the air How could this not be her city like sheets of rain, su nación where love of the many our country swallows hatred of the few. our America, There’s a poem in Charlottesville our American lyric to write— where tiki torches string a ring of flame a poem by the people, the poor, tight round the wrist of night the Protestant, the Muslim, the Jew, where men so white they gleam blue— the native, the immigrant, seem like statues the black, the brown, the blind, the brave, where men heap that long wax burning the undocumented and undeterred, ever higher the woman, the man, the nonbinary, where Heather Heyer the white, the trans, blooms forever in a meadow of resistance. the ally to all of the above and more? There’s a poem in the great sleeping giant of Lake Michigan, defiantly raising Tyrants fear the poet. its big blue head to Milwaukee and Chicago— Now that we know it a poem begun long ago, blazed into frozen soil, we can’t blow it. strutting upward and aglow. We owe it to show it There’s a poem in Florida, in East Texas not slow it where streets swell into a nexus although it of rivers, cows afloat like mottled buoys in the brown, hurts to sew it where courage is now so common when the world that 23-year-old Jesus Contreras rescues people from skirts below it. floodwaters. Continues on next page

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Hope— we must bestow it like a wick in the poet so it can grow, lit, bringing with it stories to rewrite— the story of a Texas city depleted but not defeated a history written that need not be repeated a nation composed but not yet completed.

There’s a poem in this place— a poem in America a poet in every American who rewrites this nation, who tells a story worthy of being told on this minnow of an earth to breathe hope into a palimpsest of time— a poet in every American who sees that our poem penned doesn’t mean our poem’s end.

There’s a place where this poem dwells— it is here, it is now, in the yellow song of dawn’s bell where we write an American lyric we are just beginning to tell.

Top: Portrait of Amanda used for We the Future artwork Bottom: Amanda reads In This Place at the Library of Congress

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Earthrise (2018) We heed this inconvenient truth, because we need to be anything but lenient On Christmas Eve, 1964, astronaut Bill Anders With the future of our youth. Snapped a photo of the earth And while this is a training, As Apollo 8 orbited the moon. in sustaining the future of our planet, Those three guys There is no rehearsal. The time is Were surprised Now To see from their eyes Now Our planet looked like an earthrise Now, A blue orb hovering over the moon’s gray horizon, Because the reversal of harm, with deep oceans and silver skies. And protection of a future so universal It was our world’s first glance at itself Should be anything but controversial. Our first chance to see a shared reality, So, earth, pale blue dot A declared stance and a commonality; We will fail you not. A glimpse into our planet’s mirror, Just as we chose to go to the moon And as threats drew nearer, We know it’s never too soon Our own urgency became clearer, To choose hope. As we realize that we hold nothing dearer We choose to do more than cope than this floating body we all call home. With climate change We’ve known We choose to end it— That we’re caught in the throes We refuse to lose. Of climactic changes some say Together we do this and more Will just go away, Not because it’s very easy or nice While some simply pray But because it is necessary, To survive another day; Because with every dawn we carry For it is the obscure, the oppressed, the poor, the weight of the fate of this celestial body orbiting a star. Who when the disaster And as heavy as that weight sounded, it doesn’t hold us down, Is declared done, But it keeps us grounded, steady, ready, Still suffer more than anyone. Because an environmental movement of this size Climate change is the single greatest challenge of our time, Is simply another form of an earthrise. Of this, you’re certainly aware. To see it, close your eyes. It’s saddening, but I cannot spare you Visualize that all of us leaders in this room From knowing an inconvenient fact, because and outside of these walls or in the halls, all It’s getting the facts straight that gets us to act and not to wait. of us changemakers are in a spacecraft, So I tell you this not to scare you, Floating like a silver raft But to prepare you, to dare you in space, and we see the face of our planet anew. To dream a different reality, We relish the view; Where despite disparities We witness its round green and brilliant blue, We all care to protect this world, Which inspires us to ask deeply, wholly: This riddled blue marble, this little true marvel What can we do? To muster the verve and the nerve Open your eyes. To see how we can serve Know that the future of Our planet. You don’t need to be a politician this wise planet To make it your mission to conserve, to protect, Lies right in sight: To preserve that one and only home Right in all of us. Trust That is ours, this earth uprising. To use your unique power All of us bring light to exciting solutions never tried before To give next generations the planet they deserve. For it is our hope that implores us, at our uncompromising core, We are demonstrating, creating, advocating To keep rising up for an earth more than worth fighting for.

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Write down or highlight 3 lines from each poem that stood out to you. Discuss which poem spoke more to you. You will use that poem for inspiration tomorrow. What does liberation mean? First look at and discuss the definition: lib·er·a·tion noun 1. the act of setting someone free from imprisonment, slavery, or oppression; release. “the liberation of all political prisoners” 2. freedom from limits on thought or behavior. “the struggle for women’s liberation” Which lines in each poem are about liberation? Highlight or write them down.

Amanda’s interview on MTV’s Total Request Live program Seattle Educator, Jennifer Dunn, sharing Amanda’s and Amplifier’s work in her classroom

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