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Maya Angelou open thread

Caperton

Dr. Maya Angelou has passed away at age 86.

While Dr. Angelou has been best known of late for her poetry, prose writing, storytelling, and activism — including possibly her most famous work, the autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings — she spent early days as an actress, singer, and dancer, in addition to copious writing. Among other distinctions, she was a Grammy-nominated poet, Grammy-winning singer, Tony-nominated actress, Pulitzer Prize-nominated screenwriter, and only the second poet to deliver an inaugural recitation at the inauguration of Bill Clinton with her poem “On the Pulse of Morning.” Her agent has said that while Angelou was having health problems, she was still active in writing and was finishing a new book at the time of her passing.

As posts and tributes become available, I’ll link them here. Feel free to add your own links and comments below.

4 thoughts on Maya Angelou open thread

  1. the head of a giraffe against a bright blue sky: its mouth is pursed sideways

    ::: Look at my adorable trollitude! I just wasted my first and only commenting chance at Feministe! :::

    [Moderator note – ORIGINAL COMMENT CONTENT HAS BEEN FLUFFINATED]

  2. The amazing thing about Dr. Maya Angelou is not that she was amazing, talented, versatile and lived an incredible life but that what she said, wrote, sang, danced, produced and taught touched so many people. She has long been a shero- I have turned to one of her many books when I have been blue- which has been often over the years- to get a boost. I was blessed to have had a conversation with her many moons ago when I considered American Studies for grad school. Dance, write, speak on – thank you for sharing a life well lived!

  4. Rather than waffle on with my own tribute, I hope it’s ok just to post one of her poems…

    STILL I RISE

    You may write me down in history

    With your bitter, twisted lies,

    You may trod me in the very dirt

    But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

    Does my sassiness upset you?

    Why are you beset with gloom?

    ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells

    Pumping in my living room.

    Just like moons and like suns,

    With the certainty of tides,

    Just like hopes springing high,

    Still I’ll rise.

    Did you want to see me broken?

    Bowed head and lowered eyes?

    Shoulders falling down like teardrops,

    Weakened by my soulful cries?

    Does my haughtiness offend you?

    Don’t you take it awful hard

    ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines

    Diggin’ in my own backyard.

    You may shoot me with your words,

    You may cut me with your eyes,

    You may kill me with your hatefulness,

    But still, like air,

    I’ll rise.

    Does my sexiness upset you?

    Does it come as a surprise

    That I dance like I’ve got diamonds

    At the meeting of my thighs?

    Out of the huts of history’s shame

    I rise

    Up from a past that’s rooted in pain

    I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,

    Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

    Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

    I rise

    Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

    I rise

    Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

    I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

    I rise

    I rise

    I rise.

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