Connecting with Amanda Gorman at the Arlington

Young Poet Inspires Audience to Take Stock and Say 'No' Sometimes

Pico Iyer interviews Amanda Gorman at the Arlington on April 30, 2024. | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

Amanda Gorman brought inspiration and connection through poetry to Santa Barbara last week. She read some poems and conversed with Pico Iyer on the Arlington’s stage as part of UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Justice for All series. The young poet became a household name in 2021 when she gave the presidential inaugural poem for Joe Biden. She’s an amazing intellect, speaker, and poet, and she’s done so much to promote poetry. I know several poet and writer friends who were not able to get a ticket to her sold-out engagement. I can’t think of anyone else who has done as much to promote poetry.

Gorman talked about her rise to fame and how she inhabited unheard-of spaces for a poet. “I became visible for being a poet, but everyone wanted me to be anything but a poet,” she said. “I needed to be a Covergirl; I needed to be a make-up ambassador … I wanted to be part of all those spaces. So, I said yes to so much.”

While it was important for her to be the first poet to perform at the Superbowl or to co-host the Met Gala, she realized how saying yes to everything wore her down. She learned how to offer herself a kindness by turning down some opportunities. I can certainly relate, because I had a hard time saying no to opportunities in my first year as Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara. Although the experience is nowhere near that of being the nation’s youngest representative of poetry, I want to take a page from her book and also “learn to do myself a service,” and dial back on overbooking myself. We should all take a page from Amanda Gorman’s book. She even suggested we read Burnout by Emily and Amelia Nagoski. The New York Times best-seller explains why women experience burnout differently than men.

In a profound statement about how we can solve the problems of our world, such as climate change, Gorman states that we need to start by nourishing ourselves. “The more we give ourselves grace for ourselves,” she said, “then we can show up for our planet. The planet cannot be saved by dying people.”

I appreciated how she connected poetry to bigger planetary problems and their solutions to beginning with people having the energy to care, to read, to vote, to show up and to ask questions.

Pico Iyer’s conversation with Gorman was casual, relaxed, and well-researched. He brought up everything from her childhood to her future aspiration to become president in 2036. As a poet, it was thrilling to hear the words of the woman who will become president and to see the power of words in action, on a stage, in the same room.

Gorman has been voicing her presidential aspirations for several years, and there’s no doubt in my mind that she will see this desire come true. While she takes to heart what Maya Angelou says about words, that we must be careful about the words we use because words get into your wallpaper, your rugs, your clothes, and finally into you, Gorman began with a mixed relationship with language due to an auditory processing disorder she had as a child. However, as we’ve seen from her accomplishments, struggling with language only made her stronger. She is an example of turning an impediment into a strength. She shared how she could access language through song recitation and the oral tradition of the Black community, citing speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King.

How refreshing it would be to have a Black female intellectual poet become President of the United States.

May Poetry Events

May 8: The Blue Whale Reading Series, Unity of Santa Barbara Chapel (227 E. Arrellaga St.), 5:30-7 p.m. Featured readers Peg Quinn and Christopher Buckley.

May 15: Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Emeritus Paul J. Willis reads and signs his new poetry collection, Losing Streak, at Chaucer’s Books (3321 State St.), 6 p.m.

May 18: Poets Respond to the Ruth Leaf exhibit at the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara (229 E. Victoria St.), 2 p.m.

May 21: Poetry Walk, S.B. Reads Odes, Farmers’ Market (State St. and Canon Perdido), 4-6 p.m. Meet local poets and read their poems. Poems featured in the Poetry Walk were written last fall during an S.B. Reads ode-writing workshop led by Santa Barbara Poet Laureate Melinda Palacio.

May 25: Mission Poetry Series on Zoom, 1-2:30 p.m. Featured readers include presidential inaugural poet Richard Blanco and Alta California Poetry Chapbook winners Fred Arroyo and Amelia Rodriguez.

June 6: Typewriter On-Demand Poetry. Come and receive a typewritten poem. The long-awaited repeat of last year’s event will happen on First Thursday in June, details TBA. This week’s community poetry entry comes from Nancy Clare Caponi, who joined last month’s writing in the gallery workshop. She wrote in response to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Serenity and Revolution exhibit and Picasso’s “Blind Minotaur.”

Picasso’s Dream
by Nancy Clare Caponi

Lead us on, child of peace, through the dangers of the night
The monster of rage and aggression is ready to fight in the revolution
But you have cast a spell of serenity over us all
Bystanders watch closely, silently under the dark, starry sky
Light and darkness, good and bad, are portrayed in this claustrophobic scene
Lead us on, child of peace, to the promised land

About the author: Born in Minnesota, Nancy Clare Caponi was the eldest of six siblings. The child of an Italian immigrant and an Irish-American, her second language is Italian. She earned an MA in the History of Art and Architecture from UCSB in 2002, writing about an environmental art installation at the Des Moines Art Center. Nancy’s BA from Drake University is also in Art History. She has written essays for publication and taught art appreciation classes in Iowa, California, and Colorado. Currently she participates in the SBMA’s Writing in the Galleries program, and the Parliamo Italian conversation group. Nancy lives in Santa Barbara with her husband, a landscape architect.