Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman Co-Chairs 2021 Met Gala, Fashion’s Biggest Night!
DiversityInc,. By Brian Good, Posted September 6th 2021
She’s already the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, as well as an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of Harvard University, and now 2021 breakout star Amanda Gorman is adding event hostess and fashion icon to her resume as well.
The Grio’s Ny Magee reported that Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour has not only asked Gorman to attend the 2021 Met Gala but also co-chair the event. Gorman will share co-chair duties with tennis star Naomi Osaka, Oscar-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet and Grammy winner Billie Eilish at one of the most fashionable and career-making nights in all of entertainment.
“The closest analogy is feeling like Cinderella going to the ball,” Gorman told the fashion site, Porter. “Anna Wintour took the time to ask me over Zoom; I was not expecting that at all.”
According to Magee, “the Met Gala is essentially fashion’s biggest night, when the Costume Institute of New York’s famed Metropolitan Museum launches their annual exhibition.”
While the event generally falls on the first Monday in May, the Met Gala was postponed to Sept. 13 this year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Part One of the Costume Institute’s new exhibition, which will also serve as the theme for the Gala itself, is an exploration of “the nation’s sartorial identity.”
In the official description of the event and exhibit, organizers promise that “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” will be “a deep dive into American ingenuity. Everything from the luxe ease of Halston’s 70s glamour to Rodarte’s ethereal edge and Kerby Jean-Raymond’s powerful political vision for Pyer Moss will feature within the forthcoming exhibition.”
As for Gorman, the 23-year-old told Porter that she couldn’t be more excited by the co-chair honor but also likened attending the Gala to feeling “like being a freshman at a party with seniors.”
“Like, I just arrived here. My life has changed quite recently, and they are all at the top of their game. … I’m just absorbing what it means to be able to stand beside their greatness,” Gorman said. “There is something unifying in us being young and fresh-faced but, at the same time, we have become somewhat emblematic of our industries. We are the new generation — and you’d better watch out.”
Following her now-iconic reading of the poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration earlier this year — along with the striking yellow coat she wore — Gorman became an instant celebrity and the talk of social media.
That fame isn’t likely going away anytime soon as the poet and author has several projects set for release later this year — all of which are already bestsellers.
Gorman’s new poetry collection, Call Us What We Carry, will be released on Dec. 7, 2021. Gorman’s first children’s picture book, Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem, is also slated for a September release.
“I wrote Call Us What We Carry as a lyric of hope and healing,” Gorman said in a press release. “I wanted to pen a reckoning with the communal grief wrought by the pandemic. It’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever written, but I knew it had to be. For me, this book is a receptacle, a time capsule both made by and for its era. What is poetry if not a mirror for our present and a message for our future?”
