Maya Angelou's rhapsody of redemption
Published May 29, 2014
Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, May 28, 2014.
She was at once an old soul and one forever young, one who felt the pain of her ancestors and the joy of the newest generation and communicated it all with words that will live forever worldwide.
Maya Angelou of Winston-Salem, who died Wednesday at the age of 86, is being mourned internationally, but she was an American original in every sense of the word. In a lifetime of writing and stage-work, she brilliantly conveyed the tragedy and triumph of her own life, from abused child to friend of presidents and entertainment moguls. And she conveyed the tragedy and triumph of her country, from the early days of slavery through the war that ended it through the epic struggle for civil rights. She was a major player in that last struggle.
Maya Angelou knew something about broken hearts. She knew just as much about healing hearts. As a young black woman, she boldly made her way in the world, standing up for the rights of all blacks. She kept doing that, as well as standing up for the rights of women. But increasingly, her rhapsody was one of redemption, of emphasizing the common humanity of us all.
The world watched her speak along those lines on TV. In Winston-Salem, where Angelou had moved by 1982 teach at Wake Forest University, some saw her face to face. She didn’t suffer fools gladly. But those who did make it into her inner circle tell us that she was a divine presence indeed. She chose her friends here carefully, then showered them with compassion and grace. Whether they met with her one-on-one in her bright, art-filled house on Bartram Road or were part of larger gatherings, Angelou made them feel special.
Parties, dinners and fine conversation, whether in her house or in her grand garden, were other arts she mastered.
She could have lived anywhere in the world but she chose Winston-Salem. The attention she brought our city was nice. So was the help she gave to community causes, such as health care. But what was even better was that she helped usher The City of the Arts and this country into a new age, one of shared power, but most important, one of shared humanity.
May 29, 2014 at 12:39 pm
Bobby Poon says:
Everytime I think of Maya Angelou, I am drawn to one of my favorite passages from P.J. O'Rourke, where he contrasts the past vs. today (during Bill Clinton's tenure as President):
"Here is Robert Frost, last of the antiques, celebrating the inauguration of old-fashioned high-binder John F. Kennedy:
Some poor fool has been saying in his heart
Glory is out of date in life and art.
Our venture in revolution and outlawry
Has justified itself in freedom's story
Right down to now in glory upon glory.
Not Keats, perhaps, but not bad, and with interesting use of the dactyl and amphibrach in the final tercet.
Now here is Maya Angelou, foremost of the contemporaries, at the inauguration of that most modern of all presidents, Bill Clinton:
A Rock, A River, A Tree
Host to species long since departed
Marked the mastodon,
The dinosaur, who left dried tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor
No rhyme, no meter, and it's about dinosaur turds."
May 29, 2014 at 3:36 pm
Bobby Poon says:
I must make one more comment about this glowing comment from the W S Journal.
Harold Bloom is an American literary critic and Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University: "Miss Maya Angelou cannot write her way out of a paper bag."
Another article criticizing Angelou by a great writer, Francine Prose can be found by Googling.the link below from the left will tell you all you need to know.
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2586
