Maya Angelou By L. Stephens August 21, 2014. Maya Angelou Author Poet Civil rights activist...
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Transcript of Maya Angelou By L. Stephens August 21, 2014. Maya Angelou Author Poet Civil rights activist...
Maya Angelou
By L. Stephens
August 21, 2014
Maya Angelou
• Author• Poet• Civil rights activist• Women’s rights activist• Professor• World renowned speaker• Actress• Playwright• Entertainer• Producer and director
Early Years
• Born in 1928 in St. Louis– Lived with her mother for just a short time
• Raped by her mother’s boyfriend• Was mute for several years
• Raised by her grandmother after her parents separated– Lived in a tiny, totally segregated town in Arkansas– At age 17 had her only child named Guy– In her early 20s Grandmother died
• Maya’s attitude towards life changed dramatically– She would live fully
Activist• Married a South African freedom fighter• In Cairo, was editor of the Arab Observer, the
only English-language newspaper in the Middle East
• In Ghana was feature editor of the African Review and taught at the University of Ghana
• With Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., she became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
• Appointed by President Ford to the Bicentennial Commission
Activist
• Appointed by President Carter to the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year
• Wrote and produced several prize-winning documentaries promoting black rights and women’s rights
• Nominated for an Emmy for her acting in Roots and her screen play, Georgia,which was the first screenplay to be filmed by a black woman
• Died May 28, 2014, at age 86
BLACK FAMILY PLEDGE
By Dr. Maya Angelou
Because we have forgotten our ancestors, our children no longer give us honor.
Because we have lost the path our ancestors cleared, kneeling in perilous undergrowth, our children cannot find their way.
Because we have banished the God of our ancestors, our children can not pray.
Because the long wails of our ancestors have faded beyond our hearing, our children cannot hear us crying.
Because we have abandoned our wisdom of mothering and fathering, our befuddled children give birth to children they neither want nor understand.
Because we have forgotten how to love, the adversary is within our gates, and holds us up to the mirror of the world, shouting, Regard the loveless.
Therefore, we pledge to bind ourselves again to one another; our lowliest, To keep company with our loneliest, To educate our illiterate,
To feed our starving,To clothe our ragged, To do all good things, knowing that we are more than keepers of our
brothers and sisters. We are our brothers and sisters.
In honor of those who toiled and implored God with golden tongues, and in gratitude to the same God who brought us out of hopeless desolation,
We make this pledge.
Philosophy
“Justice begins with each of us. We must seek justice, but at the same time we must care not to lust after revenge. We are no better than our adversaries. We should always be on the side of justice.”
Love is What Really Matters
• Maya does not mean the mushy kind of love. She means the love “that is the condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows us to rise, that condition that allows people to dream of God, to imagine golden roads.” She states that this condition has allowed the “dumb” to write spirituals, Russian songs and Irish lilts. She believes that love gives us a great deal of confidence about life. “If you want to liberate someone, love them.”
"Caged Bird"
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun 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 hills
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through singing 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.
Work Cited
http://iisd1.iisd.ca/50comm/panel/pan04.htm
http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/angelou_m.htm
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/angelou/angelou.bio.bib.html#contax
http://melanet.com/watoto/pledge.html