Biden's inaugural poet Amanda Gorman reveals 'Hamilton' song helped her overcome speech impediment
Jan 21, 2021
Washington DC [US], January 21 : American poet Amanda Gorman, who grabbed eyeballs with her inaugural poetry at the President Joe Biden's swearing-in ceremony, recently opened up about her journey of overcoming a speech impediment.
According to E! News, the 22-year-old writer who delivered 'The Hill We Climb' to celebrate the swearing-in of Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, revealed later to CNN after her performance that she dealt with a speech impediment until last two or three years.
During the interview she told Anderson Cooper that she overcame the condition with the help of Tony-winning song 'Aaron Burr, Sir' from Broadway play 'Hamilton.'
"It was as recent as college that I was still struggling to say the 'R' sound, and so one thing that I would do to try to train myself to say it, is I would listen to the song 'Aaron Burr, Sir,' which is just packed with R's," E! News, quoted the youth poet laureate as saying.
"And I would try to keep up with Leslie Odom Jr as he's doing this amazing rap, and I'd say, 'If I can train myself to do this song, then I can train myself to say this letter'," she added.
The poet went on to explain the reason that her inaugural poem contained references to Lin-Manuel Miranda's theatrical production.
"And so that's been a huge part of my own speech pathology. It's why I included it in the inaugural poem. Also, beyond that, I think Hamilton is just such a great American cultural piece of what it means to be a better country," she said.
"It was really hard for me not to just copy and paste 'My Shot' and email it to the committee. Like, 'Here's my poem, here we go!' But I cite my sources, which is why I tweeted about Hamilton. I'm really proud to incorporate that in there," she added.
The youngest inaugural poet took to Twitter soon after delivering her work at the ceremony and asked Lin-Manuel if he could catch the references she made to his musical.
"Did you catch the 2 @HamiltonMusical references in the inaugural poem? I couldn't help myself," she had tweeted.
