Brave Enough to Be the Light

The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it.

Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate, closed her poem “The Hill We Climb” with these words on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20. On this same day the year before, Ms. Gorman headlined the 35th Annual Celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which the SGI-USA co-sponsored and hosted at the World Culture Center in Santa Monica, California. From the Ikeda Auditorium, she made a powerful call to action to commit ourselves to making real the promise of democracy now.

The 22-year-old Los Angeles native was named the country’s first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. Her original children’s book, “Change Sings,” and poetry collection “The Hill We Climb” will be released this fall.