Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou’s Inspiring Life Celebrated In New Documentary

... Louis roots and love of poetry. He opened the door to Angelou’s foray into teaching, helping her land a position at California State University at Sacramento, where he was a professor. “She grew into an excellent professor,” Redmond said. “She brought her passion to the classroom, as well as her vast knowledge about literature and life experience.”. Angelou taught courses on philosophy and literature. In her lessons, she wove insights of her firsthand knowledge of the civil rights movement, her personal friendships with leaders of the movement, and her own Black experience. “We were pioneers back then, bringing Africana into academia,” Redmond said, pausing to reflect. “There were few Black professors on college campuses in 1970.”. As her star rose, Angelou received more requests to teach and offers of visiting professorships. She came to Wake Forest in 1973 for a speaking engagement, which turned out to be the first step in a decades-long academic career at the ...

Va Auto Show, Screening Of Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise

... events and appearances at the Virginia Motor Trend International Auto Show include the 2016 Miss Virginia Michaela Gabriella Meet & Greet Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., courtesy of Citgo. Citgo Gas Cards – The first 100 lucky show goers on Saturday, and Sunday, will receive a $10 Citgo gas card, courtesy of Citgo. There will also be Face Painting & Balloon Art  Sunday, from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Show hours are Friday and Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for senior citizens (62 and older) and military (w/any DOD/ID) and free for children (12 and under). For additional information, visit www. Virginia Auto __link__ or follow __link__/Virginia Motor Trend International Auto Show , @VAAuto Show on Twitter and @VAAuto Show on Instagram. Hashtag: #VAAuto Show. February 18. St. Michael Catholic Church’s 25 th Anniversary Bluegrass Concert Series, Saturday, Lorraine Jordan and Carolina Road; April 1, Larry Stephenson Band; July 29 Damien Muller Band and ...

Belva Davis On Maya Angelou, A True ‘shero,’ And Her Salad-spinning Gift

... vision and efforts to bring all of the stuff that is good for us together, in one place, to nourish and feed our hunger. So often it takes just one person with a strong determination to drive a whole device, or a movement. The challenge is to make sure the person with the hand on the lever really cares about the fragile leaves she is whirling. To recognize that it’s the mixing of all the flavors, colors, and the textures, that result in a great, healthy and special dish. As one who respects Maya’s passion and commitment to value all around us, I asked myself how can I cultivate a new vision of my own place in life. How can I embrace a strong desire to soldier on with others, and accept that I am just one small part of the creation of something good? When will I accept the fact that my contribution will be to find satisfaction in being part of the solution. The most important part of this rather simple ‘thank you gift story’ is envisioning a single person with power to push a lever that forces unwanted elements to go away. I do not want to know if she intended some sort of sublime message for me to acknowledge my own power — or simply wished me to make a better, ...

The Caged Bird Sings

... saw and experienced differential treatment based on race and class. Politicization fired her temper. She began to speak out and write up what she saw, first in songs, then short stories. In California she met Langston Hughes who urged her to come to New York. There she joined with him, Max Roach and Nikki Giovanni and Harlem Writers Guild stalwarts Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Godfrey Cambridge and Sidney Poitier. In Paris she forged a lifetime friendship with James Baldwin. In the U. S., Martin Luther King, Jr. became her brother; Malcolm X, a dear friend. Malcolm told her: "If you have something to protest, you should be in the streets." So she pursued the fight against injustice with protests and organizing, as well as through performance and writing. On the stage, her riveting role as The White Queen in Jean Genet's "The Blacks," upset and moved audiences, some to run for the exits. Maya's world was shaken with the assassinations of Malcolm and Martin Luther King, Jr. "They knocked me out," Angelou told friends. She took refuge ...

Maya Angelou's Final Words

... moment, lifted from Bill Moyers' 1982 PBS segment about the author. She stands at a podium and recites her poem The Mask  — a scathing, heartbreaking meditation on an oppressed race that must "wear the mask that grins and lies." Angelou laughs, sheds tears and modulates her voice in a startling sequence of bellows and whispers. In those few stanzas the actor, the poet, the singer and the social activist raise their voices in a tumbling chorus of impassioned genius. It is hard to imagine anyone having the audacity to attempt reading that poem aloud again. Director Hercules laughs at the thought. "It's a stunning poem and a stunning performance," he agrees. "That look on her face … amazing.". Always a larger-than-life figure, she seems to grow brusque and even regal in her later years. I'm thinking of one scene in particular, where she rather brutally chastises a young girl who has just called her "Maya." To the uninitiated, Angelou's demeanor may seem calculated, but Whack and Hercules reject the notion that she used her acting skills to craft a public persona. "I don't think she was ever 'playing' at any ...

Maya Angelou’s Messages To Young Readers

... Feelings and Angelou’s work together on Now Sheba Sings the Song is filled with his sepia rich illustrations and her lyrical poetry. The book pays a timeless homage to the beauty, historical strength and resolute magic of black women. Cover for ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’. In Angelou and Basquiat’s Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, the author and illustrator help families navigate some of the real and imagined terrors foisted upon children in today’s world. Basquiat’s illustrations are rendered with the fright that overtakes the imaginations of so many kids, while Angelou’s words drum up the courage they need to help them live beyond the fright and terror. Shadows on the wall. Life doesn’t frighten me at all. Dragons breathing flame on my counterpane. That doesn’t frighten me at all. Makes you feel like you can take on anything, doesn’t it. The fact that Angelou’s rich literary life included works for children is a testimony to her vision and her commitment to words. Through books she wrote for adolescents, she demonstrates the depth of her brilliance, and exemplifies the ways humanity can create a world that turns on a bounty of imagination and creativity. ...

Personal Stories Are The Highlight In Maya Angelou

... at the age of seven by her mother’s boyfriend, who was so badly beaten soon after Maya told her brother that she didn’t speak for five years, certain her words had killed the man. Her casual reminiscence about losing her virginity at 16 in San Francisco: “Is that all there is? And he said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘OK. Bye.’”. There and elsewhere—as with an ’80 s spoken-word performance about a black woman’s practiced “survival” laughter—Angelou’s a fantastic storyteller. Yet Hercules and Whack dedicate so much time to her life and relationships, they don’t get to her writing until the final 45 minutes (even then it’s mostly about her famous debut memoir). It’s doubtful any big-name documentary about a black male activist and writer would focus so much on his life, children, and marriages. (Compare the just-released documentary I Am Not Your Negro, which imaginatively continues a book James Baldwin—a friend of Angelou—never finished). From her civil rights-era work to her African travels, Angelou’s made a prism here for the politicized black-American experience in the second half of the 20 th century. And yet there are curious cracks in this documentary’s ...

Maya Angelou’s Son Weeps Recalling Heartbreak His Mother Felt Losing Role To Pearl Bailey

... in 1969, the late poet was a single mother struggling to find work to support her son. In an exclusive clip from  American Masters – Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise , the first documentary feature about her life, Angelou’s son Guy Johnson gets emotional remembering one particular hardship she experienced at the arms of Emmy-winning actress Pearl Bailey. The year was 1967, and Hello Dolly! — one of Broadway’s biggest hits — was in the middle of its third year. With ticket sales beginning to sag in the wake of original star Carol Channing’s departure, producer David Merrick decided to recast the production with an all-black cast led by Bailey. Pearl Bailey in Hello Dolly. John Dominis/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty. Angelou, then a struggling actress and singer touring across the states with her calypso and blues nightclub act, was brought in to audition for Bailey’s understudy. “For my mother, it would have meant living continuously in New York without leaving me for at least a year,” said Johnson, 72. “And it was regular money.”. But Angelou was not given the role — a decision Johnson claims was made by Bailey. “The director and the producer both ...

Moving Doc On American Icon

... interview footage with Angelou herself as well as recordings of her work — her voice carries the film. Early on, she describes a seminal moment from her childhood — being sent as a young girl, with “no adult supervision,” by train from Los Angeles to live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, in the heart of the Jim Crow South of the 1930 s. “I was terribly hurt in this town,” she says, “and vastly loved.”. advertisement | advertise on newsday. Later reunited with her mother in St. Louis, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend and stopped speaking — an episode she described in “Caged Bird” years later. The effect of that revelation was powerful for readers. “I’d never heard of another black woman, a young girl, who had been raped,” says Winfrey, who discovered the book at age 15. “So I read these words and thought: She knows who I am.”. Among the film’s delights are footage of Angelou performing calypso music — barefoot, in a form-fitting sheath dress — during the 1950 s, and ...

Bill And Hillary Clinton Honor Maya Angelou

... a number of years and experiences,” Hillary said onstage as she stood beside Bill. “She and I had a wonderful time at Wake Forest in 2008. We did more laughing than talking, which I think conveyed to the students something about the resilience and enthusiasm for life that she wanted them to understand.”. She the closed her remarks by reciting a few “timely” quotes, as she described them, from Angelou’s inaugural poem. “Lift up your hearts. Each new hour holds new chances. For new beginnings. Do not be wedded forever. To fear, yoked eternally to brutishness,” she recited before pausing for a moment and moving to another line. “‘The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change.’”. “And then it ends: ‘Here on the pulse of this new day, you may have the grace to look up and out and into your sister’s eyes, ...