Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have spent the past two months largely out of the spotlight, living their lives privately in their Montecito home, where they've been quarantining during the coronavirus
pandemic with their one-year-old son Archie. But this afternoon, details about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's first surprise event of 2021 emerged: The couple crashed one of Get Lit, a youth poetry organization's, Zoom poetry classes.
The organization revealed the news on its Instagram, sharing a screenshot from the Zoom call. "Guess who surprised our poetry class this weekend?!" the organization wrote on its Instagram. "It was the best weekend EVER! Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, were magic and kind and interested in poetry! The Duchess even shared some of her favorite poetry lines. We are so grateful for their visit in honor of Black History Month. It goes down as most epic experience in Get Lit history!!!"
Royal reporter Omid Scobie shared a close-up of Meghan and Harry's Zoom screen on his Twitter. Behind them is a painting, giving fans another rare look into their home and how they decorated it.
A surprise poetry class appearance from the Sussexes in honour of #BlackHistoryMonth. @GetLitPoet’s initiative helps increase literacy and empower youth at over 100 US schools. Their curriculum helps students learn classic poetry alongside penning and performing their own verses. https://t.co/l2fmd36JrWpic.twitter.com/yCR2d55Ark
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) February 8, 2021
Meghan and Harry's Get Lit appearance comes one day after National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman gave the first-ever poetry reciting during the Super Bowl. Ahead of her big game performance, Gorman spoke to former First Lady Michelle Obama for Timeabout her experience with imposter syndrome
"Speaking in public as a Black girl is already daunting enough, just coming onstage with my dark skin and my hair and my race—that in itself is inviting a type of people that have not often been welcomed or celebrated in the public sphere," she said. "Beyond that, as someone with a speech impediment, that impostor syndrome has always been exacerbated because there’s the concern, Is the content of what I’m saying good enough? And then the additional fear, Is the way I’m saying it good enough?"
Gorman also reflected on the power of poetry, following her viral inauguration poem reading. "Poetry and language are often at the heartbeat of movements for change," Gorman told Obama. "If we look to the Black Lives Matter protests, you see banners that say, They buried us but they didn’t know we were seeds. That’s poetry being marshaled to speak of racial justice. If you analyze Martin Luther King’s 'I Have a Dream' speech, it’s a great document of rhetoric that’s also a great document of poetry, of imagery, of song. Never underestimate the power of art as the language of the people."