For the first time in the dozen years that Brooks has been doing an annual All Community Read, the school will take on a work of poetry, Amanda Gorman’s “Call Us What We Carry.”

Chair of the English Department Danielle Coriale announced the selection on behalf of the English department, tasked with sponsoring the 2026-2027 All Community Read, yesterday in Chapel.

“English teachers feel a little pressure when it’s our turn to choose,” she remarked. “We’re the book people, after all. But when we landed on a collection of poetry by Amanda Gorman and received glowing feedback from the students who volunteered to read it, we had no doubt that we’d made the right choice.”

Get the buzz on last year’s All-Community Read. 

In keeping with the tradition of the All Community Read program, every individual at Brooks, from students to employees, will each read the title this summer, discuss it in classes, group talks and other opportunities throughout the upcoming year, while faculty works the book into students’ curriculum. Families are encouraged to join in the fun and read it, as well.

Last year's All Community Read Author Came to Speak at Brooks. 

Calling the 2021 collection by Gorman — the youngest presidential inaugural poet in U.S. history — innovative in form and visual layout, Coriale told students, “Her poetry confronts injustice while still insisting on the possibility of hope.”

The 28-year-old’s poems are “both relatable and unflinching,” Coriale said. “They speak truth, they present you with puzzles and they provide you with opportunities for self-reflection. Best of all, they are short! You can read them in bursts, here and there, when you have time. Poetry is wonderful that way.”

The English department’s hope, the teacher added, is that all who dive into the collection will “find glimmers of meaning in the poems that speak to you.”

“And who knows?” she concluded her announcement, “Maybe you’ll be inspired to write your own.”