By Daily Mail (World News) | Created at 2024-10-29 18:16:19 | Updated at 2024-10-30 09:16:27
3 years ago
A portrait of inaugural poet Amanda Gorman has been donated to Harvard University's permanent collection.
Rising Ghanaian artist Raphael Adjetey Adjei Mayne painted the work inspired by 22-year-old Gorman’s poem delivered on January 20 at the inauguration of President Joe Biden in Washington.
The acrylic on canvas was purchased by women’s rights and LGBT+ activist Amar Singh who has donated the painting to Harvard.
A portrait of Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman has been donated to Harvard University's permanent collection [pictured at the inauguration of President Joe Biden on January 20]
Rising Ghanaian artist, Raphael Adjetey Adjei Mayne, painted the work inspired by Gorman’s poem delivered on January 20
Mayne, 38, is a graduate of the Ghanatta College of Art and Design. He completed the work in just five days.
The painting is described as 'a visceral assemblage of diverse facets of Ghanaian and African sociocultural experiences evoking political, emotional and practically psychoanalytical connections and cut-aways weaving private and public space realities unbound by time'.
Singh, 31, said of the donation: 'This work must be in an Institution, it is a celebration of women, a celebration of Black women, a celebration of hope.
'It is especially meaningful to donate it to Harvard as that is Amanda Gorman’s Alma Mater.'
At Harvard University the work will be housed at the Hutchins Center, headed by Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr, another champion of Black artists and voices who along with his teaching hosts PBS’ Finding Your Roots and appeared in recent documentaries The 13th and John Lewis: Good Trouble.
Singh, a member of the erstwhile Kapurthala Royal Family of India, through his activism helped legalise homosexuality in India and has highlighted women’s rights issues throughout the country.
Owner of Amar Gallery in London, Singh acquired the work from celebrated curator Destinee Ross-Sutton via her newly opened Ross-Sutton Gallery, a space dedicated to primarily Black artists and the underrepresented.
Ross-Sutton told artnet news in 2020: 'In the many instances where others attempt to deny us simple pleasures, we are encouraged to deny ourselves.'
The acrylic on canvas was purchased by women’s rights and LGBT+ activist Amar Singh who donated the painting to Harvard [pictured L with India's only openly gay royal Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil]
Mayne, 38, is a graduate of the Ghanatta College of Art and Design
Ross-Sutton’s current exhibition, BLACK VOICES: Friend Of My Mind, features the work of Mayne. It celebrates images of Black figures through rest, wellness, self-love and introspection.
National Youth Poet Laureate Gorman - who is also the youngest-ever Inaugural poet - became an overnight sensation after performing her original piece The Hill We Climb at President Biden's inauguration.
She received a standing ovation from the President, Vice President, and First Lady at the ceremony - as well as a slew of praise online from A-listers including Oprah Winfrey, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and John Legend.
Gorman wears a bird cage ring in the portrait, as she did when reciting the poem. The ring was sent to her as a gift by Oprah. It is a nod to poet Maya Angelou.
National Youth Poet Laureate Gorman - who is also the youngest-ever Inaugural poet - became an overnight sensation after performing her original piece The Hill We Climb at President Biden's inauguration
Angelou recited her own poem at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993 - the now-famed I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.
Shortly after the ceremony, Harvard sociology graduate Gorman took part in numerous TV interviews, during which she spoke out about how she overcame a lifelong speech impediment, while also opening up about how she formed a friendship with Oprah in the lead-up to the inauguration.
Much like President Biden, who has been open about his battle with a stutter, Amanda said she could not have faced the challenging performance without the inspiration of the newly-elected leader that she performed in honor of.
'President Biden has been super open about his stutter,' she told Good Morning America last week. 'My speech impediment wasn't a stutter but it was dropping several letters that I just could not say for years.
Shortly after the ceremony, the Harvard graduate did numerous TV interviews, during which she spoke out about how she overcame a lifelong speech impediment
'Most specifically the R sound. It took until I was 20 to say it. [Which meant] that I couldn't say words like 'poetry' or even 'Gorman' which is my last name. I had to really work at it and practice to get to where I am today.'
The poem that Amanda so ably performed at the inauguration was testament to her hard work; the piece featured 'rise' several times, a word that the poet was unable to utter just a few short years ago.
'I was kind of like why on the world did I put "rise" in my poem about five times,' she joked. 'But also it was this amazing full circle moment for me because if I'd written this poem three years ago, I wouldn't have been able to say it. So it was me rising as well as the country at that time.'
She has even gone on since to sign with elite modeling agency IMG this week.
The Hill We Climb: Amanda Gorman's inauguration poem in full
When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We've braved the belly of the beast
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn't always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we've weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn't broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn't mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we'll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we're to live up to our own time
Then victory won't lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we've made
That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it's the past we step into
and how we repair it
We've seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children's birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
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
