Poet Amanda Gorman says security guard tailed her on walk home, thought she looked ‘suspicious’

LOS ANGELES — Amanda Gorman, who rose to national prominence earlier this year as the youngest inaugural poet, said Friday she was tailed by a security guard who thought she looked suspicious and considered her a threat as she walked to her apartment.

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“He demanded if I lived there because ‘you look suspicious,’” she wrote on social media. “I showed my keys and buzzed myself into my building. He left, no apology. This is the reality of black girls: One day you’re called an icon, the next day, a threat.”

Gorman, 22, earned national acclaim and became the youngest inaugural poet when she recited her poem “The Hill We Climb” Jan. 21 at President Joe Biden’s swearing in.

She performed at the Super Bowl preshow in February. She has two books, a collection of poetry and a children’s book, that are due to be published in September, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Gorman first became a youth poet laureate in 2017 while she was a student at Harvard, The New York Times reported.

“In a sense, he was right,” she later wrote on social media. “I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, to inequality, to ignorance. Anyone who speaks the truth and walks with hope is an obvious and fatal danger to the powers that be. A threat and proud.”

Cox Media Group