Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. Please allow me to share a few lessons that I learned from the woman born Marguerite Johnson. The poet laureate has been one of the greatest teachers of self-compassion and unconditional self-love our our time. “Does it come as a surprise / That I dance like I’ve got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs?” -MA In fact, the book opens with a quote from the superwoman: Maya’s name appears many times in my new book, The Sacred Bombshell Handbook of Self-Love. With that being said, here is a list of 10 of Angelous best quotes and poems to celebrate International Women’s Day. A Sacred Bombshell is a woman who owns herself, mind-body-spirit. Angelou had a broad career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood’s first female black director, but became most famous as a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet. Angelou was a Phenom, but she was also a Sacred Bombshell. An acclaimed American poet, storyteller, activist, and autobiographer, Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. When I was preparing my speech, it only seemed natural to share life lessons that I learned from Dr. , an organization created by Davisha Davis to reinforce positive self-esteem and foster media literacy among young women. Last weekend I was a speaker at the launch of Project V, Inc. If you are hearing impaired, I will soon share a transcript of this talk…
Phenomenal woman, that’s you.If the link of this lecture won’t play, click here. A wise woman recognizes when her life is out of balance and summons the courage to act to correct it.
Maya Angelou’s memorial service that took place this last Saturday June 7 in Wait Chapel at Wake Forest University: Here she is reciting her famous poem “Still I Rise”:Īnd for those of you who may have missed it, here is the link to the livestream (no longer live, of course) of Dr. I think it was her passion, humor, and style. The way she carried herself, regal and confident and unassuming. I think it was her words, her poetry, her soul. I think it was her general awesomeness of spirit. So why was it that her death moved me to tears? Complement it with Angelou’s stunning poem A Brave and Startling Truth, which flew to space in an effort to unite humanity, then revisit her 1973. And Still I Rise is a magnificent read from cover to cover. I do not share similarities of upbringing: culture, class, race, religion, or regional influences. The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, The need for my care. Due to her parents’ tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce. On April 4, 1928, Marguerite Ann Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, was born in St. She was best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.
I did not read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings until adulthood. When other women pass her, they should feel proud. Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar Maya Angelou was a world-famous author. Maya Angelou was not a figure from my childhood. That might sound a weird choice–as if we actually have the power to choose how we react to such news–but as a child of the ’70s, John Denver’s music had been an influential force that carried over as the soundtrack to the raising of my own small children. The only other celebrity I actually cried over was John Denver. I can feel deep sadness and a sense of loss, but tears don’t usually flow. Let me say that while I am a highly emotional person who is easily swayed by sentimentality in books, movies, commercials even, it is not my usual mode to cry over the death of celebrities. Immediately tears flowed in an uncontrollable stream as I opened Google news and read the first article I found. It wasn’t until a post popped up that showed the dates of her birth and her death (that very day) that I was struck with a ferocity of weighted loss as I realized the reason for all the posts was not merely due to her awesomeness and inspiration but because she was gone from the planet.
That’s how normal it felt to see her face and quotations such as these: Maybe I was being ignorant or naive, but I had no suspicion she had passed. The other reason I did not suspect anything amiss was because Maya Angelou was such a strong and inspirational woman, poet, writer, and activist that it seemed only right she would be an influential force in people’s threads. For one thing, the very nature of Facebook is that people “share” posts, and often throughout a day or series of days, certain topics become popular as a general shifting focus. The day before my recent birthday, on May 28, I opened up Facebook to find an abundance of photos of and quotes by Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou: Phenomenal Woman, That’s You.