Poet Amanda Gorman criticizes book ban effort in Florida targeting Biden's inauguration poem
Amanda Gorman criticized book banning efforts in Florida targeting Biden's inauguration poem. After news broke that Amanda Gorman's historic poem "The Hill We Climb" was moved to the middle school section of a Miami-Dade school, the poet slammed efforts to restrict or censor books in schools. "I'm gutted," she said in a statement posted to her social media accounts. She continued, "I wrote The Hill We Climb so that all young people could see themselves in a historical moment … Robbing children of the chance to find their voices in literature is a violation of their right to free thought and free speech." Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman speaks during the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on the West Front of the Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021 in Washington, D.C. Rob Carr/Getty Images, FILE Documents obtained via a public records request by the activist group Florida Freedom to Read Project found that a complaint by one parent targeted seve...