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Angelina Jolie struck a poignant and uplifting chord on Thursday night, introducing National Youth Poet Amanda Gorman Variety‘s Power of Women honors.
The director, actor and humanitarian superstar arrived at the Beverly Hills Celebration presented by Lifetime with his daughter Zahara Jolie-Pitt, to present the honor to Gorman – the poet who captivated the country in January when the President was inaugurated. Joe Biden.
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“The young woman of grace, who climbed the podium fearlessly on the day of the inauguration. Not just the youngest voice but the loudest we could ask for at this time. The Amanda we see today may appear to have leaped into our time, fully formed, to invoke our best angels. But there was an Amanda we didn’t see, ”Jolie said.
“A little girl with a speech impediment. In her own words, “a 7 year old girl with buckskin teeth, frizzy hair and scrambled speech.” Jot down in your journal, on the school bus and on the park bench. struggling with language, confusing meaning and rhyme, inventing his own dictionary. All these hours of thought and creation have forged the steadfast woman you see today, ”said Jolie.
Jolie applauded Gorman’s ability to refine his words in deep loneliness and express them in multitudes, saying if anyone can “bring people to the streets” with his words at this urgent time, it’s Gorman. .
“So, in addition to celebrating your extraordinary accomplishments, Amanda, we pay tribute to you, 7, and all the other girls who think she’s a stranger, alone, as she just blossoms.” Jolie said. “So many girls see their progress in life derailed – by poverty, by the disapproving word, the clenched fist or the steel of the gun. How many Amanda are living in Afghanistan, in hiding their newspapers, while waiting to see if they or they will be allowed to go to school? As if anyone has the right to decide what a woman can and cannot do with her mind and body.
Jolie, who walked the rug with Gorman and Zahara, remarked that there was “nothing more beautiful, more stimulating and perhaps more disturbing than the free spirit of the thinking woman. This is surely why so much effort is being made to compel it.
After a round of applause on the note, Jolie concluded by saying, “Those who have the power of free speech – the weapon of free speech – must unite to stand up for those who do not.” have not. We need voices like Amanda’s, those lights in the dark. May you burn fiercely and light the way for others. “
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