Maya Angelou

Her voice sang her words, a bit of sway, a slow drawl, beats before the words she wanted us to feel in our hearts, in our souls ~ The caged bird sings of FREEDOM. Still I’LL RISE, PHENOMENAL WOMAN. PEACE, MY BROTHER, MY SISTER, MY SOUL.

Merran and I were privileged to be able to see Dr. Maya Angelou speak several years past. Her audience leaned forward in their seats, mesmerized by her stories, her songs, the way she crossed the stage in the epitome of a phenomenal woman ~ “It's in the arch of my back, The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts, The grace of my style.” It was the kind of evening that you stay in your seats after the lights come up, afraid if you leave the spell will be broken, knowing deep in your being that you just witnessed greatness.

I cannot read her words, her poems, her memoirs, without now hearing her voice, without seeing her grace, without being changed.

“You have to stand up for the fellow who’s been knocked down,” she says. “I am filled with gratitude for those who say, ‘I identify with those people because they are human beings, and nothing human can be alien to me.’ That’s a powerful statement, and a powerful thing to do.” Dr. Maya Angelou, in the July 2007 Vanity Fair Africa Issue.

With hope,

Melinda