Amanda Gorman on being asked to co-chair Met Gala: ‘Like Cinderella going to the ball’
"Anna Wintour took the time to ask me over Zoom; I was not expecting that at all," the poet and author shared.
Poet and activist Amanda Gorman said co-chairing the annual Met Gala made her feel like one of Disney’s most iconic characters.
“The closest analogy is feeling like Cinderella going to the ball,” said the 23-year-old in the latest issue of Porter. “Anna Wintour took the time to ask me over Zoom; I was not expecting that at all.”
As previously reported by theGRIO, the Met Gala is essentially fashion’s biggest night, when the Costume Institute of New York’s famed Metropolitan Museum launches their annual exhibition. The star-studded event usually takes place on the first Monday in May, but it was delayed last year due to COVID and will return on Sept. 13.
Part One of the Costume Institute’s exhibition will explore, “the nation’s sartorial identity.”
Per an official description, “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” promises to 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.”
Part 2 of the exhibition “In America: An Anthology of Fashion,” is set to open in May 2022. This theme is focused more on “the development of American fashion by presenting narratives that relate to the complex and layered histories of those spaces.”
This year’s co-chairs, in addition to Gorman, are tennis star Naomi Osaka, Oscar-nominated actor Timothée Chalamet and Grammy winner Billie Eilish.
Gorman told Porter that taking on the co-chair role “feels like being a freshman at a party with seniors. You know? Like I just arrived here. My life has changed quite recently and they are all at the top of their game, and so I’m just absorbing what it means to be able to stand beside their greatness.”
“There is something unifying in us being young and fresh-faced but, at the same time, we have become somewhat emblematic of our industries,” she added. “We are the new generation — and you’d better watch out.”
Gorman gained instant fame after she performed her poem The Hill We Climb at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration.
In related news, Gorman will release a book of poetry titled Call Us What We Carry on Dec. 7 via Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. The collection, formally titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, will explore “themes of identity, grief, and memory,” according to the publisher, as reported by Forbes.
“I wrote Call Us What We Carry as a lyric of hope and healing. 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,” said Gorman in a statement. “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?”
Tamar Brazis, editorial director of Viking Children’s Books, called Gorman “one of the most exciting voices in American poetry.”
“Even when her poems are tackling themes of conflict and adversity, her message of hope always shines through,” he said in a statement.
In September, Gorman will release her debut children’s picture book, Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem, via Viking Books.
Jared Alexander and Keydra Manns contributed to this report.
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