The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive Special Edition Honoring
Maya Angelou Poet-Author, Civil Rights Activist National Treasure
Suppose I Really Am Going to Be Somebody? I HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING– In Fact, I Have to Say Many Things
She stood on the arch of our country’s transition and told the truth.
You’ve Almost Got It, but Not Quite. Keep Coming! Wisdom & Human Rights
Honoring Maya Angelou Special Edition 2014 $9.00 USA (CAN $10.00) Female-Exec.com
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Dr. Maya Angelou’s outfit by
COLE HAAN Photo: Elliot Erwitt
When People Show You Who They Are Believe Them
The First Time -Maya Angelou
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This issue of E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive honors Dr. Maya Angelou for her wisdom and influence in encouraging social change. Through commentary, essays, poetry, speeches and autobiographies, she remains a voice of Truth. Althea Ledford Editor
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Special Edition - Maya Angelo CONTENTS
Message from the Editor’s Desk
7 8
12 16
The Arch of Social Transition in the United States
18
You Mean Things Can Change?
Civil Rights Movement
That’s Just the Way Things Were Then
Suppose She’s Right? Suppose I Really Am Going to Be Somebody Special?
26
29
Your Gifts Will Make Room for You
You’ve Almost Got It, but Not Quite. Keep Coming! Wisdom & Human Rights
I Have to Say Something– In Fact, I Have to Say Many Things
22
34 If You Can Do 80, Do It!
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From the Editor and Chief Creative Officer
During her later years, Dr. Maya Angelou addressed humanity as if we were all her children, bidding us to get along, be gentle, love one another—be human. Dr. Maya Angelou experienced the ugliness of racism in the 1930s, ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s and then lived to see the inauguration of the first African–American President. She had to make the transition from being a member of the civil rights movement to being a prominent voice in addressing social inequalities, some of which still exist today. She became that distinct bell that kept ringing around issues of social injustice and humanity. Addressing both the progress and the remaining stubborn stains, it’s as if she beckoned to us with: “You’ve almost got it, but not quite. Keep coming!” Plainly put, Dr. Maya Angelou was in the business of moving human souls to better places. I hope you enjoy this special edition. -Althea Ledford Editor
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nsition and told the truth. Autobiographies I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-37550789-2
Gather Together in My Name (1974). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-39448692-5
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-45777-0
The Heart of a Woman (1981). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-8129-8032-5
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-73404-8
A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-37550747-2
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou (2004). New York: Modern Library. ISBN 978-0-679-64325-8
Mom & Me & Mom (2013). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6611-7
Poetry Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-47142-6
Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-45707-0
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And Still I Rise (1978). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-50252-6
Poetry for Young People (2007). Berkshire, U.K.: Sterling Books. ISBN 1-40272023-8
Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? (1983). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-39452144-7
"We Had Him", 2009
"His Day is Done", 2012
Poems (1986). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-553-25576-2
Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987). New York: Plume Books. ISBN 0-45227143-6
I Shall Not Be Moved (1990). New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-35458-2
"On the Pulse of Morning" (1993). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-748385
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-42895-X
Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women (1995). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-43924-2
Personal Essays Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-553-56907-4
Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-37550031-6
Letter to My Daughter (2008). New York: Random House. ISBN 1-4000-66123
Cookbooks Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes (2004). New York: Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6289-6
A Brave and Startling Truth (1995). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-67944904-3
"From a Black Woman to a Black Man", 1995 "Amazing Peace" (2005). New York: Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6558-5
"Mother: A Cradle to Hold Me" (2006). New York: Random House. ISBN 1-40006601-8
"Celebrations, Rituals of Peace and Prayer" (2006). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-307-77792-8
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Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart (2010). New York: Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6844-4
Plays Cabaret for Freedom (musical revue),
with Godfrey Cambridge, 1960
The Least of These, 1966 The Best of These (drama), 1966 Gettin' up Stayed on My Mind, 1967 Sophocles, Ajax (adaptation), 1974 And Still I Rise (writer/director), 1976
Film and Television Blacks, Blues, Black! (writer, producer and host – ten one-hour programs, National Education Television), 1968
Mother Courage, 1964
Georgia, Georgia (writer for script and musical score), Sweden, 1972 All Day Long (writer/director), 1974 PBS documentaries (1975):
Who Cares About Kids & Kindred Spirits (KERA-TV, Dallas, Texas) Maya Angelou: Rainbow in the Clouds (WTVS-TV, Detroit, Michigan) To the Contrary (Maryland Public Television) Tapestry and Circles Assignment America (six one-half hour programs), 1975
Part One: The Legacy; Part Two: The Inheritors (writer and host), 1976 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (writer for script and musical score), 1979 Sister, Sister (writer), 20th Century Fox Television, 1982
Brewster Place (writer), ABC, 1990
Down in the Delta (director), Miramax Films, 1998
The Black Candle (poetry, narration), Starz, 2012
Plays and Films Acted In (partial list)
Porgy and Bess, 1954–1955 Calypso, 1957 The Blacks, 1960
Look Away, 1973 Roots, ABC, 1977
Runaway, Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions, 1993 Poetic Justice, 1993 Touched by an Angel ("Reunion"), CBS, 1995
How to Make an American Quilt, Universal Pictures, 1995
Madea's Family Reunion, Tyler Perry Studios, 2006
Recordings
Miss Calypso, Scamp Records, 1957 For the Love of Ivy, ABC Records, 1968
Spoken-Word Albums The Poetry of Maya Angelou, GWP Records, 1969 Women in Business, 1981 On the Pulse of Morning, Random House Audio, 1993 Been Found (with Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson),Ichiban Old Indie, 1996
A Song Flung Up to Heaven, Random House Audio, 2002
Radio Talk show host, Oprah and Friends, XM Satellite Radio, launched 2006
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That’s Just the Way Things Were Life In the 1930s & ‘40s
The depression was in full swing then. Men were begging in the streets and families were committed to Shantytowns. President Roosevelt instituted the Civilian Conservation Corps which enlisted 20-year-olds to work on civil construction projects for $30 a month. 2.5 million men were added to that work force. This project and a number of other similar work projects were instituted so families could feed themPage 12 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
The economic conditions of the country during this period greatly affected family structure and family decisions. Many families were forced to make choices under extreme stress, hopelessness and desperation. For middle-class families or families unaffected by the depression, the husband went to work and the wife stayed home with the children. She cooked, cleaned, and kept order. From the outside, things took on an appearance of normality.
For poor families, children could be committed to work full time to help the family stay afloat—often at the expense of a childhood or an education.
Further down this same road, the soup got thicker. In general, women were a sub-class to men and black women were considered sub of the subclass. And while all of America suffered together, African-American, Asian and Hispanic families suffered silently in an additional plight—marginal participation on the fringe of an American dream. You could drive a car, talk on the phone, go to a picture show, pay taxes and use inside plumbing,
but you couldn’t vote if you were the wrong color.
Dr. Maya Angelou grew up in this particular soup of voiceless women and frustrated men, where little girls—if not fiercely watched—could become vulnerable victims themselves. E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive Page 13
Maya was molested—as so many young girls were back then. Since personal space and personal safety was not discussed, girls weren’t always empowered to tell someone.
They were made to feel ashamed and left to suffer deep internal scars. The perpetrator, often a family member or friend, was free to walk around without repercussion. Page 14 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
During the 1930s and ‘40s, women of all colors could be treated as chattel. A husband had the right to treat his wife in any manner he saw fit. If the police had to be called for help, the woman was often reprimanded with, “You must have asked for it or done something to deserve it.”
Sexual education and birth control were a luxury for the wealthy or educated. Many housewives—no matter what their color—were subjected to having children non-stop, if a husband wanted them. Despite the inequalities, the 1940s were ten times better than the ‘30s.
Most people were eating regular meals again and enjoying a 40-hour workweek. During the first 20 years of her life, Maya had lost her voice and found it again. She didn’t know it at the time, but providence was already shaping her life.
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“Suppose She’s Right? Suppose I Am Going To Be
Somebody?”
In her eulogy at Dr. Angelou’s Memorial Service, OPRAH repeated a story Maya had related about the day her mother spoke these words:
It was as if a bell of recognition had rung with prophetic clarity from the timeless into the present.
“I think you’re the greatest
woman I’ve ever met. Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt...you’re in that category.” She then walked across the street and got into her car. Maya was 17 years old. That one statement, made mother to daughter, eyeball to eyeball, became a pivotal landmark in Maya’s life. Page 16 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
It’s a great thing for a human being, using the power of words, to infuse truth into the life of another. When someone you trust makes a statement—good or bad—there is weight added to the words. How much more resounding would those words be, coming from one’s own mother?
Maya’s mother stood grounded and deliberately spoke a particular truth. She did not temper it with anything that would lessen the impact of the message. Would Maya have become this fantastic, legendary being if her mother’s words had not released her to it? Probably so…
However, on that day, Maya was given the gift of spiritual flight. Her mother removed any shackles and personal limitations. In essence, she told her daughter: “You are free to fly as far and as high as you can. I see you beyond anyone else I have ever known.”
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You Mean Things Can Change? The Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s
Before a problem can be solved, a solution must first be imagined in the mind, heart or soul of the visionary. Almost everyone, if given the choice, would have rather stayed home and supported the civil rights movement via television. But change doesn’t happen that way. People had to walk, others sang, wrote letters, protested and preached. The civil rights movement had a messy labor and delivery. But it was born, and change did eventually take place. During the 1960s, numerous people, including : James Baldwin Donovan Malcolm X Martin Luther King Page 18 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
Mohammed Ali Miles Davis Mahalia Jackson James Brown Jesse Jackson Bob Dylan Sidney Poitier Peter, Paul and Mary Angela Davis Sammy Davis Jr. Frank Sinatra Medgar Evers Cecily Tyson Johnny Mathis Harry Belafonte Paul Laurence Dunbar Countless ministers, priests, nuns, rabbis, school teachers and the like joined hands and participated in the civil rights movement.
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These leaders Almost every artist at that time were all assasaddressed the issue in some form sinated within of song, poetry, art, or literary the same 5work. Together, they coordinated year period. their energy, pushing basic civil rights forwardrights for women, rights for blacks, browns, reds and yellows.
The most awake this country had ever been was during the ‘60s. And, an alert constituency made life difficult for closed-minded politicians.
Universities across the country saw war protests.
How far did people go to keep things just the way they were? As with most great transitions, there was a cost. Page 20 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
John F. Kennedy Assassinated Nov. 22, 1963
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Malcolm X Assassinated Feb. 21, 1965
Not to mention the untold, faceless victims of racism and lynching. There were countless denials for equal employment and education, from grade school all the way to college. Maya worked directly with Malcolm X. When he was assassinated, she worked with Martin Luther King until his assassination.
This period of time was permanently impactful. Those who stood on the hollowed grounds of change remained civil rights troopers for the rest of their lives. That energy, purpose and message shaped Maya’s pen.
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I have to say something – In fact, I have to say many things Anyone working in the civil rights movement realized the dangers of telling an unpopular truth. It can cost a person everything just to birth a vision. It was during this time that Maya first lifted her literary voice and wrote more than a half-dozen books in the form of autobiographies and poetry. All were centered around the theme of “being mindful of how we treat each other”—”we” being mankind. Page 22 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
Published in 1969, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings begins when three-year-old Maya and her older brother are sent to Stamps, Arkansas to live with their grandmother and ends when Maya becomes a mother at the age of 16. In the course of Caged Bird, Maya transforms from a victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a selfpossessed and dignified young woman capable of responding to prejudice.
Maya had realized the importance of speaking the truth. Human rights were no longer an option, but an absolute necessity. She continued to create extended versions of her biography, making plain the path and leaving big footsteps to follow. We can’t pretend not to hear her. We can’t pretend to misinterpret the message.
And Still I Rise consists of 32 poems, divided into three parts. The first part, entitled "Touch Me, Life, Not Softly," has been called "joyful" and affirms the poet's strength as a woman and as a lover. Part Two, "Traveling," focuses on the hardships, such as drug addiction, child abuse, inner-city life, and conditions in the Old South that the author and others have experienced. Part Three, "And Still I Rise," which gets its name from the volume's title poem, reiterates the themes in Part One and emphasizes the strength she finds in herself and in her community.
While she used an updated style, the message is the same.
This is the way, walk therein... Isaiah 30:21
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Luke 6:31
Love thy neighbor as thyself. Mark 12:31
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Psalm 24:7
She fearlessly kept step with the voice of God in her head and jotted every title as plainly as the vision could be written.
Humanity will continue to be blessed with prophets, poets, psalms and parables in all shapes, colors and sizes.
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Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize,
Diiie is made up of two sections of 38 poems. The 20 poems in the first section, "Where Love is a Scream of Anguish," center on love. Many of the poems in this section and the next are structured like blues and jazz music, and have universal themes of love and loss. The eighteen poems in the second section, "Just Before the World Ends," focus on the experience of the survival of AfricanAmericans despite living in a society dominated by whites.
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas is the third book of Maya Angelou's seven-volume autobiography series. Set between 1949 and 1955, the book spans Angelou's early twenties. In this volume, Angelou describes her struggles to support her young son, form meaningful relationships, and forge a successful career in the entertainment world. The work's 1976 publication was the first time an AfricanAmerican woman had expanded her life story into a third volume. In Singin' and Swingin', Angelou examines many of the same subjects and themes in her previous autobiographies including travel, music, race, conflict, and motherhood. Angelou depicts the conflict she felt as a single mother, despite her success as a performer as she travels Europe with the musical Porgy and Bess.
Many of the poems in Diie were originally song lyrics, written during Angelou's career as a night club performer and recorded on two albums Page 24 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
Angelou continues to discuss racism in Gather Together, but moves from speaking for all black women to describing how one young woman dealt with it. The book exhibits the narcissism of young people, but describes how Rita discovers her identity. Like many of Angelou's autobiographies, Gather Together is concerned with Angelou's on-going self-education.
Gather Together in My Name (1974) is the second autobiography in a series of seven autobiographies. The book begins immediately following the events described in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and follows Angelou, called Rita, from the ages of 17 to 19. Written three years after Caged Bird, the book "depicts a single mother's slide down the social ladder into poverty and crime.� The title of the book is taken from the Bible, but it also conveys how one black female survived in the white-dominated society of post-war America, and speaks for all black females.
Gather Together was not as critically acclaimed as Angelou's first autobiography, but received mostly positive reviews and was recognized as better written. The book's structure, consisting of a series of episodes tied together by theme and content, parallels the chaos of adolescence, which some critics feel makes it an unsatisfactory sequel to Caged Bird.
Angelou expands upon many themes she started discussing in her first autobiography, including motherhood and family, race and racism, identity, and education and literacy. Rita becomes closer to her mother in this book, and goes through a variety of jobs and relationships as she tries to provide for her young son and find her place in the world.
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Your Gifts Will Make Room For You
Without compromising her message, Maya became recognized for the deeper social meaning within her work, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Caged Bird was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970 and since then she’s kept words of wisdom, truth and experience in the consciousness of the American public. So significant was the simple elegant cadence of her literary voice, hitting and revealing truths, that she recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, making her the first poet to deliver an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's 1961 inauguration. Page 26 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, published in 1986, is the fifth book in AfricanAmerican writer and poet Maya Angelou's seven-volume autobiography series. Set between 1962 and 1965, the book begins when Angelou is thirty-three years old, and recounts the years she lived in Accra, Ghana. It resumes where Angelou's previous book, The Heart of a Woman, left off, with the traumatic car accident involving her son Guy. The book ends as Angelou returns to America. The title of the book comes from a Negro spiritual.
By this time, Maya Angelou had become Dr. Angelou. Her recitation resulted in more recognition for her previous works and broadened her appeal "across racial, economic, and educational boundaries." She appeared on countless television talk-shows, lectures, spoke to numerous graduating classes and earned the reputation of being a voice of conscience for America.
Wouldn’t Take Nothing For my Journey Now was Dr. Maya Angelou’s first book of essays, published shortly after she recited her poem, On the Pulse of Morning. The positive response from her readers and the encouragement of her friend, Oprah Winfrey inspired her to write Journey. She later admitted that the public's response was "puzzling" to her. She also stated that she attempted to be "accessible" to her readers in the book. Journey appeared on The New York Times bestseller list and had an initial printing of 300,000 copies. The Los Angeles Times, in a report about the
1993 financial struggles of Angelou's publisher, Random House, speculated that the success of Journey partly compensated for the publisher's other losses. By the time of its publication in 1994, she had published five autobiographies, eventually going on to publish seven, and five books of poetry. Angelou began, early in her writing career, alternating the publication of an autobiography with a volume of poetry. This short volume is an anthology of poems published in her previous poetry books. The three poems "Phenomenal Woman," "Still I Rise," and "Our Grandmothers" had appeared in And Still I Rise . Maya learned to cook by observing her mother and grandmother. Her grandmother, Annie Henderson, who raised Angelou and her brother for most of their childhood, supported herself and her family during the early part of the 20th century and the Depression with food stalls catering to black factory workers. The business eventually developed into E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive Page 27
In 2000, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton. In 2010, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S., by President Barack Obama. Letter to My Daughter (2009) is the third book of essays by AfricanAmerican writer and poet Maya Angelou. By the time it was published, Angelou had written two other books of essays, several volumes of poetry, and six autobiographies. She was recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for blacks and women, and had become "a major autobiographical voice of the time." Angelou had no daughters herself, but was inspired to write Letter as she was going through 20 years of notes and essay ideas, some of which were written for her friend Oprah Winfrey. Angelou wrote the book for the thousands of women who saw her as a mother figure, and to share the wisdom gained throughout her long life. Page 28 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
A Song Flung Up to Heaven picks up at the two "calamitous events" which frame the beginning and end of the book—the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Angelou describes how she dealt with these events, the sweeping changes in both the country and in her personal life, and how she coped with her return home. The book ends with Angelou at "the threshold of her literary career."
The poems in I Shall Not Be Moved focus on themes of hard work, universal experiences of humans, the struggle of AfricanAmericans, and love and relationships .
Easy Reading is Damn Hard Writing. –Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou speaks during a
ceremony to honor South African Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in Washington, November 21, 2008.
You’ve Almost Got it, But Not Quite. Keep Coming!
Wisdom and Human Rights
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Even though Dr. Angelou, herself, had reached poet “rock star” status, she never forgot the plight of the voiceless. Maya kept civil rights, human rights, and women’s rights front and center.
It takes direct inspiration to find the courage to speak an unpopular truth, especially having seen the costs messengers and agents of change have had to pay in the past. Angelou wasn’t afraid to call ugly intent, ugly and beautiful souls, beautiful. She celebrated people where they were. Women were made to feel good about themselves. And, with this one statement:
Dr. Angelou remained unimpressed by titles, giving her the unmatched ability to speak truth to power. She focused on the substance of her message, making sure that every time she spoke, the words hit their mark within the human heart. She never held back one syllable of a message to guard the listener’s feelings, if it meant compromising an element of truth. She realized the significance of her journey and her mission to nurture, cultivate and grow humanity’s compassion for one another. Page 30 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
“When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
Maya created a point of reference—a wakeup call in personal and professional relationships around the world. If one were to imagine Dr. Maya Angelou’s prescription for humanity she might say:
You’ve almost got it, but not quite. Keep coming! Keep coming with the love, as we make a conscious effort to love greatly, deeply, more compassionately and without boundaries.
We are one mankind draped in many beautiful hues, from peach to ebony browns and all that in the middle. Delight and wonder in the sight of God—He loves us all.
Dr. Maya Angelou, and Coretta Scott King, - "Maya Angelou Life Mosaic" Collection by Hallmark - 2002. E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive Page 31
You see, during her 86 years,
Maya didn’t sit on the cusp of humanity observing its self-destructive behavior from afar. She jumped right in, wounds and all. She used her pen as a sword of truth, a blanket of warmth, transportable hugs, encouraging whispers, shouts of joy, pleadings for peace, affirmations of love, expectations and hope.
When she accepted the 2013 Literarian Award, she made some profound statements that sum up the perspective of her life. Page 32 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
“I’ve
been trying to tell the truth as far as I can understand it. I didn’t try and tell everything I know, but I’ve tried to tell the truth. And you have honored me this evening.
I’m so grateful. I’m so appreciative. My sons and daughters...some of them are black and white, Asian and Spanishspeaking and native America and fat and thin and pretty and plain and gay and straight. But I’ve tried to tell the truth.
So that you have honored me, I can’t say enough to say thank you.”
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If you Can Do 80, Do it! Dr. Angelou made these statements during an interview with OPRAH:
“If you can do 80, do it!” “Do everything in moderation. Even do moderation in moderation.” Recently, during her memorial service held on June 7, 2014, in North Carolina,
President Bill Clinton Commented that she packed five lifetimes into one. He referred to Angelou’s choice not to speak after being raped as a child by her mother’s boyfriend: Page 34 E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive
"She was without a voice for
five years and then she developed the greatest voice on the planet. God loaned her His voice," Clinton said. "She had the voice of God. And He decided He wanted it back."
First Lady Michelle Obama Stated to
those gathered in the wooden pews of the main campus chapel at Wake Forest University:
“Her voice lifted me right out of my own little head.” A large photo of her husband awarding Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 hung on the chapel wall.
The first lady added, "She told us that our worth has nothing to do with what the world might say. Instead, she said, ‘Each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. ’She reminded us that we must each find our own voice, decide our own value, and then announce it to the world with all the pride and joy that is our birthright as members of the human race."
Oprah Winfrey Commented (Daughter-in-Spirit)
“I had called for a long distance cry on her shoulder, but she wasn’t having it. She said, ‘Stop it...stop it now. Stop your crying now. Did you hear me?’ And I said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ “Only she could level me to my 7 yearold-self in an instant. “‘I want you to stop and say thank you. Because whatever it is, you have the faith to know that God has put a rainbow in the clouds. And you’re going to come out on the other side of whatever it is the better for it.’
“She was in all ways, no matter the time of day or night or the situation, she was always there for me—to be the rainbow. “She was the ultimate teacher. She taught me the poetry of courage and respect. “‘...stand still inside yourself and know who you are. You are God’s child. And in God you move and breathe and have your being.’ “She was always there holding me up, holding me up...to see the light that God already had shining on my face. Yes, I will miss her.”
“Maya Angelou is the greatest woman I have ever known.” -OPRAH
On May 27th, 2014 the cage door opened. The one the Galilean Carpenter calls Maya flew Home. E The Magazine for Today’s Female Executive Page 35
References Works Cited
Angelou, Maya (1969). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-
375-50789-2 Angelou, Maya (1993). Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-22363-6
Angelou, Maya (2008). Letter to My Daughter. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-8129-8003-
5 Braxton, Joanne M., ed. (1999). Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook. New York: Oxford Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511606-9
Braxton, Joanne M. "Symbolic Geography and Psychic Landscapes: A Conversation with Maya Angelou", pp. 3–20
Tate, Claudia. "Maya Angelou: An Interview", pp. 149–158
Burr, Zofia. (2002). Of Women, Poetry, and Power: Strategies of Address in Dickinson, Miles, Brooks, Lorde, and Angelou. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-02769-7
DeGout, Yasmin Y. (2009). "The Poetry of Maya Angelou: Liberation Ideology and Technique". In Bloom's Modern Critical Views—Maya Angelou, Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Infobase Publishing, pp. 121–132. ISBN 978-1-60413-177-2
Gillespie, Marcia Ann, Rosa Johnson Butler, and Richard A. Long. (2008). Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-385-51108-7
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Explanatory Notes 1. Angelou wrote about Vivian Baxter's life and their relationship in Mom & Me & Mom (2013), her final installment in her series of seven autobiographies. 2. According to Angelou, Annie Henderson built her business with food stalls catering to black workers, which eventually developed into a store. 3. The correct Greek spelling of Angelou's husband’s name is probably "Anastasios Angelopoulos". 4. Reviewer John M. Miller calls Angelou's performance of her song "All That Happens in the Marketplace" the "most genuine musical moment in the film." 5. Angelou's third book of essays, Letter to My Daughter (2009), she credits Cuban artist Celia Cruz as one of the greatest influences of her singing career, and later, credits Cruz for the effectiveness and impact of Angelou's poetry performances and readings. 6. Guy Johnson, who as a result of this accident in Accra and one in the late 1960s, underwent a series of spinal surgeries. He, like his mother, became a writer and poet. 7. Angelou called her friendship with Malcolm X "a brother/sister relationship." 8. Angelou did not celebrate her birthday for many years, choosing instead to send flowers to King's widow Coretta Scott King. 9. See Mom & Me & Mom, pp. 168—178, for a description of Angelou's experience in Stockholm. 10. Angelou described their marriage, which she called "made in heaven" in her second book of essays Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997). 11. Angelou dedicated her 1993 book of essays Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now to Winfrey. 12. In her fifth autobiography All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1987), Angelou recounts being identified, on the basis of her appearance, as part of the Bambara people, a subset of the Mande. 13. Angelou describes her brother's addiction to heroin in Mom & Me & Mom, pp. 189—194. 14. In Angelou's essay, "My Grandson, Home at Last", published in Woman's Day in 1986, she describes the kidnapping and her response to it. 15. In Angelou's third book of essays, Letter to My Daughter (2008), she related the first time she used legal pads to write.
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Suppose She’s Right? Suppose I Really Am Going To Be Somebody? -Maya Angelou
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