The U.S. Postal Service will release a "forever" stamp honoring writer Maya Angelou, the agency announced Monday. Angelou, best known for her memoir "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," died last year at age 86. In addition to being an author, Angelou was a professor, a Tony-nominated performer, an official with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a calypso singer who danced with Alvin Ailey, a streetcar conductor, an actress, a screenwriter and a film director. Her primary work was as a memoirist and poet; she recited a poem at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 by President Obama.
One of Maya Angelou's final projects before her death earlier this year was a collaborative hip hop album called Caged Bird Songs. The album was released last month, and now one of the songs "Harlem Hopscotch" has a music video, featuring all sorts of dancers including some familiar faces from Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, and America's Best Dance Crew. The 13-track album features Angelou reciting her poetry, set to instrumentals by producers Shawn Rivera and RoccStar and is available on iTunes and Spotify.
Legendary poet, author, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou has died in her North Carolina home at the age of 86.
Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines confirmed Angelou was found by her caretaker on Wednesday morning. Angelou had been reportedly battling health problems. She recently canceled a scheduled appearance of a special event to be held in her honor. Angelou was set to be honored with the “Beacon of Life Award” at the 2014 MLB Beacon Award Luncheon on May 30 in Houston. Angelou is famous for saying, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
In 1993 Angelou read her now famous poem On The Pulse Of Morning at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. I was overcome with goosebumps when the poem name-checked gay people at such a prestigious event. Pulse remains one of the very few poems I can (mostly) recite from memory.
There is a true yearning to respond to
The singing River and the wise Rock.
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew
The African, the Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheik,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.
They hear. They all hear
The speaking of the Tree.
RELATED: Angelou's reading of Pulse was dramatically sampled in Ispirazione's 1996 dance hit Psalm.
"We are here in direct relation to the heroes and she-roes who paid with their lives for this right. Many of us are old enough to remember what it felt like to be told we could not register to vote without taking a test or paying a poll tax. Some were asked how many angels danced on a head of a pin, how many bubbles were in a bar of soap. We are here because four courageous college freshmen sat down at a lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960, four years before the passage of the Civil Rights Act, to make a stand for equality. It’s a terrible thing to obstruct access to the ballot. But we follow all those who had the courage to dare to live so we can dare to live.
"Because of them, we are here. So vote to keep moving us forward. And carry with you your friends, family and neighbors. Carry them from your congregations, your beauty salons and barbershops, your sororities and fraternities. Carry with you those five people whose vote could make the difference. You may be pretty or plain, heavy or thin, gay or straight, poor or rich. But nobody has more votes than you. All human beings are more equal to each other than they are unequal. And voting is the great equalizer. It is important. It is imperative. There is no time for complacency." - Maya Angelou, writing for the Winston-Salem Journal.
Yesterday I was surprised by how much I enjoyed watching the Medal Of Freedom ceremony at the White House, where the honorees included Maya Angelou, Bill Russell, Yo-Yo Ma, Warren Buffet, Jasper Johns, and Bush 41, who appeared startlingly frail and had to be helped to his seat by a sturdy Marine.
Former President George H.W. Bush will be among 14 recipients of the Medal Of Freedom, the highest civilian honor granted by the United States.
President Obama will present the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to former president George H. W. Bush and 14 others with careers in politics, the arts, business and sports. In a statement, Mr. Obama said the award recipients “have lived extraordinary lives that have inspired us, enriched our culture, and made our country and our world a better place. I look forward to awarding them this honor.” The award is presented to individuals who have made “especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,” according to a press release from the White House.
Included among the other recipients are German Chancellor Angela Merkel, civil rights activist John Lewis, billionaire investor Warren Buffet, poet Maya Angelou, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
“I would ask every man and every woman who’s had the blessing of having children, ‘Would you deny your son or your daughter the ecstasy of finding someone to love?' To love someone takes a lot of courage. So how much more is one challenged when the love is of the same sex and the laws say, ‘I forbid you from loving this person’?” - Maya Angelou, phoning New York state Sen. Shirley L. Huntley (D-Queens) and asking that she support marriage equality.
Sen. Huntley says that while she enjoys Angelou's poetry, her opinion on same-sex marriage is unchanged. “If they gave me a million dollars, tax free, I just wouldn’t vote for it.”
The last legislative session of the New York Senate is June 20th. Contact YOUR New York state Senator here and demand that they support the rights of ALL of their constituents. This Sunday there will be a rally in Athens Park, Astoria as Western Queens For Marriage Equality demands the vote of state Sen. George Onorato.
Obama has selected Yale’s Elizabeth Alexander to compose and read a poem. I still remember watching Maya Angelou read “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993 — and thinking that American culture really was in a state of irreversible decline, as she indulged in that multicultural cataloguing of “the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew, / The African and Native American, the Sioux, / The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek, / The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh, / The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher, / The privileged, the homeless, the teacher.” I’ve looked at some of Alexander’s poetry, and am confident she’ll be a big improvement on Angelou. It makes me think our culture isn’t necessarily getting worse. It may even be getting better.
UGH. So now this rabid war hawk jerk thinks he's some kind of poetry critic? Some of Maya Angelou's work and surely her vocal delivery provide plenty of opportunity for parody, but I don't mind telling you that as I watched her Clinton inaugural recitation of On The Pulse Of Morning, I sat there in my office in Miami and wept.
Not just for the historic and unprecedented mention of gay people as part of the tapestry of America, but for the almost overwhelming sense of hope that the piece and the day delivered. Years later when Angelou's recitation of Pulse was sampled in the trance hit Psalm by Inspirione, I had many a "moment" on the dance floor. On The Pulse Of Morning is one of the few poems of which I can recite a substantial portion, and given a beer or ten, I'll throw in my Angelou impression as well. My favorite bit:
I, the Rock, I the River, I the Tree I am yours--your Passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain, Cannot be unlived, and if faced With courage, need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes upon The day breaking for you.
Give birth again To the dream.
Women, children, men, Take it into the palms of your hands.
