Names and faces
■ At age 22, poet Amanda Gorman, chosen to read at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, already has a history of writing for official occasions. The Los Angeles resident has written for everything from a July 4 celebration featuring the Boston Pops Orchestra to the inauguration at Harvard University, her alma mater, of school president Larry Bacow. “I have kind of stumbled upon this genre. It’s been something I find a lot of emotional reward in, writing something I can make people feel touched by, even if it’s just for a night,” said Gorman. When she reads Wednesday, she will be continuing a tradition — for Democratic presidents — that includes such celebrated poets as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. Gorman is calling her inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb” while otherwise declining to preview any lines. Gorman says she was not given specific instructions on what to write, but was encouraged to emphasize unity and hope over “denigrating anyone.” The violent takeover Jan. 6 of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump seeking to overturn the election made it a challenge to keep a positive tone, but was also an inspiration. She said that before what she described as “the Confederate insurrection” of Jan. 6, she had only written about 3½ minutes worth. It’s final length will run about 6 minutes. Gorman added that while she will not refer directly to Jan. 6, she will “touch” upon it. “The poem isn’t blind,” she said. “It isn’t turning your back to the evidence of discord and division.”
■ Fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli has asked to serve the remainder of his five-month prison term at home, saying he spent eight weeks in solitary confinement before being transferred to a minimum-security camp this week. Giannulli, who reported to a California prison in November for his role in the college admissions bribery scheme, believed he would be held in quarantine only for a short time before testing negative for the coronavirus, his lawyers said in court documents Thursday. Instead, he spent 56 days isolated in a small cell at a higher security facility next to the camp, they said. That has had a “significant” toll on Giannulli’s “mental, physical, and emotional well-being,” they wrote. Giannulli is scheduled to be released in April. His wife, “Full House” star Lori Loughlin, was released last month after spending two months at a federal lockup in Dublin, Calif. Loughlin and Giannulli were among the highest-profile defendants charged in the scheme, which revealed the lengths to which some wealthy parents will go to get their children into elite universities. An email seeking comment was sent to the Bureau of Prisons on Thursday.