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Amanda Gorman at Joe Biden's inauguration: "Hate messages"?

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"If we merge mercy with power and power with right, then love will become our legacy and change will be the birthright of our children," reads the poem translated into German, which the then 22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman recited at Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony as US president. Her inaugural poem was widely acclaimed and became a bestseller, and the poet appeared on the covers of »Time« and »Vogue«.

But change scares some people – and so a mother from Miami Lakes, Florida, wrote a letter of complaint demanding that the book "The Hill We Climb" be made impossible for students at the school her children attend. In justification, she states that the poem is "not educational", but "indirectly spreads hate messages".

The complaint was made public by the Florida Freedom to Read Project (FFTRP), which was founded in response to increasing book bans in the state.

In the current case, the responsible committee of the school district deliberated on the mother's complaint and, according to the Miami Herald, decided that "The Hill We Climb", as well as three other titles, should only be made available to middle school students. The Bob Graham Education Center in Miami Lakes teaches students from preschool through 8th grade.

In addition to Gorman's book of poems, fourth-graders and younger students are no longer allowed to borrow the titles "The ABCs of Black History", "Cuban Kids" and "Love to Langston", an illustrated biography of the poet Langston Hughes. Under the title "Countries in the News: Cuba", the committee dismissed the mother's complaint.

Confusion with Oprah

Amanda Gorman criticized the decision in a statement distributed via Instagram. "I am shocked," the author writes, adding that she wrote "The Hill We Climb" so that all the young people could recognize themselves in a historical moment. Since then, I've received countless letters and videos from children who were inspired by 'The Hill We Climb' to write their own poems," says Gorman. Depriving children of the opportunity to find their own voice violates their right to freedom of expression.

In the commentary accompanying her statement, Gorman mocks the fact that she was mistaken for Oprah Winfrey in the ban petition (the TV host contributed an afterword to the book version of "The Hill We Climb"). It had not been made clear at which points in the poem the complainant was disturbed, she had refused to read reviews and to name alternatives.

Amanda Gorman cites figures from the U.S. Library Association, according to which complaints against books grew by 2022 percent in 40 compared to the previous year. Gorman emphasized that the majority of censored works were by queer or non-white authors. The dispute over books in school libraries has escalated into an arena of the culture war in the United States – especially in Florida, led by the possible Republican presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis.

In another case involving the Escambia County school district in Florida, the writers' association PEN America filed a lawsuit last week. Amanda Gorman emphasizes that her publisher Penguin Random House has also joined this lawsuit.

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