Writers Bloc and the Skirball Present
Bestselling Author, Poet, & Activist Amanda Gorman
With Elizabeth Alexander
Thursday, December 9, 2021
6:00pm PST
Missed the event? Please purchase a book with Eso Won Books.
Writers Bloc Presents and the Skirball invite you to a livestream conversation with bestselling author, poet, and activist Amanda Gorman. Gorman will discuss her latest book of poetry, Call Us What We Carry, with decorated poet and scholar Dr. Elizabeth Alexander.
This virtual book launch event will be held digitally via Zoom. This is a ticketed event, and you must purchase a book-bundled ticket or a general admission ticket via Eventbrite in order to receive the link and password. Each book ordered through this event will include an exclusive set of Call Us What We Carry quote pencils.
Tickets:
Ticket to the Livestream with a copy of Call Us What We Carry and an exclusive gift pack of pencils printed with lines of poetry from Call Us What We Carry – includes sales tax, shipping/handling (US only): $32
OR
Ticket to the Livestream only (does not include a copy of Call Us What We Carry): $5
NOTE: Amanda Gorman will sign a very limited number of book plates, which will be placed randomly in book orders. Your books will ship from our partner, Eso Won Bookstore, after December 9, 2021.
In appreciation for ordering Amanda Gorman’s book, each book order will include an exclusive gift pack of pencils printed with lines of poetry from Call Us What We Carry.
Remember, the holidays are here. Amanda Gorman’s book, Call Us What We Carry, is a perfect gift.
On January 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman captivated the nation, and the world, with her delivery of her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Gorman was the sixth and youngest poet to deliver a poetry reading at a presidential inauguration, and her recitation of “The Hill We Climb” received widespread praise from media who called the poem “flawless” (The Atlantic), “a stunning vision of democracy” (The New Yorker), and “deeply rousing and uplifting” (Vogue). In Call Us What We Carry Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. This luminous poetry collection explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, these poems shine a light on a moment of reckoning and reveal that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, and a major voice for the future.
Important note: Please email us your questions so we receive them by 12:00pm PST on December 8, the day before the livestream.
ABOUT AMANDA GORMAN:Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history. She is a committed advocate for the environment, racial equality, and gender justice. Amanda’s activism and poetry have been featured on the Today Show, PBS Kids, and CBS This Morning, and in the New York Times, Vogue, and Essence. After graduating cum laude from Harvard University, she now lives in her hometown of Los Angeles. In 2017, Amanda Gorman was appointed the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate by Urban Word –a program that supports Youth Poets Laureate in more than 60 cities, regions and states nationally. Gorman’s performance of her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the 2021 Presidential Inauguration received critical acclaim and international attention. The special edition of her inaugural poem, “The Hill We Climb,” was published in March 2021 and debuted at #1 on the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestsellers list. Amanda appeared on the cover of TIME magazine in February 2021 and was the first poet to grace the cover of Vogue in their May 2021 issue. She was Porter magazine’s July 2021 and WSJ Magazine’s September 2021 cover star and received The Artist Impact Award at the 2021 Backstage at the Geffen Awards. She was named one of Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year in November 2021. Her debut picture book, Change Sings, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list in September 2021, and her poetry collection, Call Us What We Carry, will release in December 2021. Please visit theamandagorman.com.
ABOUT ELIZABETH ALEXANDER:Elizabeth Alexander – decorated poet, educator, memoirist, scholar, and cultural advocate – is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in arts and culture, and humanities in higher education. Dr. Alexander has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University, where she taught for 15 years and chaired the African American Studies Department. She is Chancellor Emeritus of the Academy of American Poets, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, serves on the Pulitzer Prize Board, and co-designed the Art for Justice Fund. Notably, Alexander composed and delivered “Praise Song for the Day” for the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama, and is author or co-author of fourteen books. Her book of poems, American Sublime, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2006, and her memoir, The Light of the World, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography in 2015. Her next book, The Trayvon Generation, is forthcoming in April 2022.
Amanda Gorman Photo Credit: Danny Williams
Elizabeth Alexander Photo Credit: Djeneba Aduayom