Paying Homage to A Phenomenal Woman Dr. Maya Angelou

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you” -Maya Angelou

Marquerite Johnson, better known to us as Maya Angelou born April 4th, 1928, in Saint Louis, Missouri, to parents Bailey Johnson and Vivian Baxter Johnson. Enduring her parents’ uproarious marriage Maya and her brother were sent to live with “Momma,” their grandmother. Maya was a historian, dancer, producer, director, singer, memoirist, civil rights activist, and poet. Maya certainly, without question, is still a very well alive poet and activist. She lives through many black women all across America. At least in my book anyway. My ancestors paved the way for us to be here; therefore, their character’s depth and strength remain amongst us.

As Maya’s birthday just passed April 4th, I couldn’t help but reminisce on her noteworthy triumphs and what she met to me as an activist and a poet. Throughout the 1960s, Maya embarked on many activism opportunities. In 1961 Maya moved to Cairo, Egypt, where she became an editor, the only woman editor of Arab Observer magazine — Maya, short-lived time there, penned about the anticolonialism struggle in Africa. Maya was living in Ghana when she became friends with Malcolm X. Maya helped Malcolm establish Afro-American Unity an organization where African-Americans could unify.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. -Maya Angelou.

Dr. Maya Angelou and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. bonded through activism for justice and freedom. After Maya heard Dr. King speak, she became ambitious to be a part of his organization. Dr. King appointed her to be the Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Maya Angelou and Dr. Martin Luther King shared a rare bond that Maya would never forget when she was still alive, of course, and that is Dr. King was assassinated on her 40th birthday. In an interview concerning Dr. King, Maya stated, “l couldn’t believe that this great man, this great dream, this great dreamer, this person who dared to love everybody, could be killed before he could realize his dream.”

Today I honor and embody both Maya Angelou’s life and death because, just like Maya, we too know why the caged bird sings. Too many times, we as people of color have been Maya Angelou, a bird in a cage shackled by racism, pain, injustice, lack of opportunities, and deferred dreams, but we sing toward freedom as Maya did to later talk about an entire life, a life that was lived well even through the agonies of racism and constant injustices toward our people.

The renowned poet’s activism was noticeable through her deeds and her written words. The depth, authenticity, rage, pain, calm, and stillness, the hope and intensity showed up throughout her poems, and we can relate. As I read through “The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou,” some of the most philosophical pieces when I hear and feel her cry for her people.

In, My Guilt, “My guilt is “slavery chains,” too long

the clang of iron falls down the years.

This brother’s sold, this sister’s gone,

is bitter wax, lining my ears.

My guilt made music with the tears.

My crime is “heroes dead and gone,”

dead Vesey, Turner, Gabriel,

dead Malcolm, Marcus, Martin King.

They fought too hard they loved too well.

My crime is I’m alive to tell.

Maya acknowledges our ancestors’ pain by honoring them for what they’ve endured for those to come after to experience a better life. She basks in their bravery that we will never understand because our ancestors paid the price. She embraces the bitter treads that slavery has left behind.

Maya was one of the first women poets that I became accustomed to so today I created this short Ode to acknowledge an unshakeable Queen.

ODE To Poet Maya Angelou

I shiver at your fierceness

Unapologetic in your activism

Liberation in through your words

A force to be reckon with

Even upon death

Your soul will forever be brave

Through your people

It will be known

To an Amazing Poet Maya Angelou