How a 22-year-old L.A. native became Biden’s inauguration poet

Like most of us, Amanda Gorman has been cooped up at home because of the pandemic. In her case, that’s meant staying in her West Los Angeles apartment binge-watching “The Great British Baking Show.” Unlike most of us, she got some very exciting news recently via Zoom: She’d been handpicked to read a poem at President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

The first lady, Jill Biden, is a fan of her work and convinced the inaugural committee that Gorman would be a perfect fit.