“What hasn’t Maya Angelou done? A poet, memoirist, historian, activist, and professor; a three-time Grammy winner for her spoken-word recordings; a nightclub dancer; a cabaret and calypso singer; a Broadway actress, a film and television director; a performer for Alvin Ailey; the second poet, after Robert Frost, to appear at an American presidential inauguration; an ardent tweeter until the very end—86 years seems too short to contain the boil and glow of her life. But Angelou lived to challenge limits.” (Waldman)
Here are some great articles and videos that have been making their way around the web since her passing:
Maya Angelou, Poet, Activist and Singular Storyteller, Dies at 86
Maya Angelou Often Left New York, but She Always Came Back
Maya Angelou, radical activist
Maya Angelou explains how she once made Tupac Shakur cry
Words to Live By: Remembering Maya Angelou’s Inspirational Quotes
Maya Angelou showed how to survive rape and racism — and still be joyful
Maya Angelou: A Hymn to Human Endurance
Maya Angelou’s TV Legacy, from “Roots” to “Sesame Street”
Caged Bird
A free bird leapson the back of the windand floats downstreamtill the current endsand dips his wingin the orange sun raysand dares to claim the sky.But a bird that stalksdown his narrow cagecan seldom see throughhis bars of ragehis wings are clipped andhis feet are tiedso he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird singswith a fearful trillof things unknownbut longed for stilland his tune is heardon the distant hillfor the caged birdsings of freedom.The free bird thinks of another breezeand the trade winds soft through the sighing treesand the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawnand he names the sky his ownBut a caged bird stands on the grave of dreamshis shadow shouts on a nightmare screamhis wings are clipped and his feet are tiedso he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird singswith a fearful trillof things unknownbut longed for stilland his tune is heardon the distant hillfor the caged birdsings of freedom.Maya Angelou, “Caged Bird” from Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? Copyright © 1983 by Maya Angelou.
