Amanda Gorman Considered Not Performing

Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman writes in the New York Times that she considered pulling out from the event for fear of what would happen.

Said Gorman: “I was scared of failing my people, my poetry. But I was also terrified on a physical level.”

She added: “I did know at the inauguration I was going to become highly visible — which is a very dangerous thing to be in America, especially if you’re Black and outspoken and have no Secret Service.”