Today, I will be writing in the first person because it is important that the reader know that the way that I have made most of my money in the last ten years, give or take, has been spoken word poetry. I have performed at about 400 colleges in over 40 states and have had tens of millions of views of my work. I am not going to go over my CV further, just know I am huge in the spoken word world. So, I’m in a pretty good position to write this article from the inside.
As an insider, I am here to tell you that the Black girl spoken word artists are fuming about Amanda Gorman being chosen to perform at the DNC, and I am here to tell you and them—they were not getting picked, and that is ok—but the problem is fixating on what she gets to do will never provide more opportunities for them. I am not just talking about the emo, dark lipstick, non-bathing, stereotypical poet, no. These women are not just winners of large national slams, but they also bathe.
I was honored by the opportunity to perform my newest poem, “This Sacred Scene”, at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. A huge thank you to @KamalaHarris for having me—I am so grateful. And finally, thank you all for watching, and for your kind words and support 💙
— Amanda Gorman (@TheAmandaGorman) August 22, 2024
You can… pic.twitter.com/dnkLWMuouG
Before Amanda made her debut at Joe Biden’s inauguration, I remember seeing a poem by her that was good enough for me to catch my attention; that rarely happens. It was that good and better than anything she’d done while millions were watching from their homes. After her performance at the inauguration, the Harvard grad’s life changed for the better. She became the darling of the elite, posing with Oprah and being the first poet to perform at the Superbowl.
Yesterday, I was tagged in a post, along with some other prominent Black female poets, about who would’ve done a better job, and I am here to say they picked the right person. Now, with that said, the poem that she recited at the DNC this week was a word salad with the fanciest dressing, but what did the world expect?
The worst thing about Amanda’s work is that it has been sanitized for mass consumption and that she may not be aware of that or that it may stunt her growth, but that does not mean she is not a capable writer. We do not know how many times her work had to be proofread for acceptance on such a large stage. My hugest poem is called “White Privilege,” the DNC was not about to let a poet who is that radical about racism get that microphone. My work upsets the status quo, so I would be an idiot to expect the status quo to invite me to their venue to piss them off. Amanda is palatable, unambiguously Black and beautiful. She is eloquent and delicate, she fits their narrative and it works best for all parties involved.
To the poets: Amanda’s gifts were never going to be yours.
On Twitter, a poet—whom I like—spent her good energy editing Amanda’s poem. This poet is just as good and an editor. While I won’t speak more about her identity, she has enough intellectual bandwidth to make a valid critique. However, wouldn’t her energy be better used working on her own poetry, creating more opportunities for herself? I can understand that toiling away in an art form that is classically underappreciated and underpaid compared to other art forms even at its height, only to see someone with similar skill and better opportunities flourish in unimaginable ways, must hurt.
Hell, I’ve seen people that I know I was better than get opportunities that were less out of my reach.
Still, those people were still a representation of an art form I love and still bring awareness to the genre. It is easy to critique the person who gets to walk through a once previously closed door first, but we forget that does not mean that door is going to close behind them. Poets often look at other poets who have not dredged through the trenches of gross nightclubs that could serve as a backdrop for the Broadway version of Love Jones or cut their writing teeth at poetry slams as somehow inauthentic, but was the poetry of those who came before nightclubs and slams inauthentic?
Watch this poet break down white privilege!
— Write About Now (@wanpoetry) June 9, 2020
Artist: @Kyla_Lacey pic.twitter.com/Q3ccIVwbnl
Amanda Gorman does not owe me or any other poet a slice of her success. She owes it to herself to be the best writer she can. While her DNC performance may not have been indicative of her best, that does not mean she was not deserving of the opportunity. Amanda has been touted as an activist, and that word definitely gets thrown around too loosely, but if she is actively exposing a genre to the world, then maybe that is all the activism we need.
