RIP Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou passed away at the age of 86. She is a renowned poet, actress, singer, and dancer. In 2011 she was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, the highest civilian honor in the U.S. Though Angelou never went to college she’s referred to as Dr. Maya Angelou. She was awarded over 30 honorary doctorate degrees and taught American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.
CNN.com states:
Angelou spent her early years studying dance and drama in San Francisco but dropped out at age 14, instead becoming the city’s first African-American female cable car conductor.
Angelou later returned to high school to finish her diploma and gave birth a few weeks after graduation. While the 17-year-old single mother waited tables to support her son, she acquired a passion for music and dance, and toured Europe in the mid-1950s in the opera production “Porgy and Bess.” In 1957, she recorded her first album, “Calypso Lady.”
Angelou was born April 4, 1928 in St. Louis. She was raped by her mother’s boyfriend when she was 7 years old and he was eventually beaten to death by a mob after she testified against him. Angelou stated, “My 7-and-a-half-year-old logic deduced that my voice had killed him, so I stopped speaking for almost six years.”
Ironically, she is most notorious for her voice today. She spoke over six languages and was a newspaper editor in Egypt and Ghana. She was also one of the first black women film directors. She will forever be remembered for her powerful words. I will leave you with her poem, “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” to honor her memory:
A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.
But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.
But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom.
