Former National Youth Poet Laureate and Harvard graduate Amanda Gorman impressed the whole world on Jan. 20 when she read “The Hill We Climb,” a poem she wrote especially for the inauguration of President Biden.
One week later, her alma mater was gifted with a portrait of the poet, a vibrant acrylic painting by Ghanaian artist Raphael Adjetey Adjei Mayne.
The portrait, which depicts Gorman speaking at the inauguration, was donated to Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research by Amar Singh, a Harvard alum as well as a private London-based art collector known for supporting women artists. The final price was around 8,000 pounds (or about $9,692). Independent curator Destinee Ross-Sutton helped arrange the sale.