Maya Angelou's SuperSoul Sunday - Part 1

heart-to-heart with a phenomenal woman I am honored to call my mother my sister and my friend all right here we go my first true spiritual teacher dr. Maya Angelou would you say that you've had a life filled with exact yes she's taught me so many of my greatest life lessons I could fill a book with them well you know when you know better you do best the ticket and one thing I know for sure you have over the years continuously surprised me it's dr. Maya Angelou like you've never seen her before so what comes to your mind when you see that today my mentor and a true American treasure opens up about forgiveness about family and us you were not the kind of mother to come back and say I told no but you were the kind of daughter said I was wrong I was a very special super soul Sunday with dr. Maya Angelou starts right no I wanted a place for people to go every Sunday to wake up thought-provoking oh you couldn't have said that better than I opening and inspiring this is my favorite thing to talk about this will lift you right on up it's food for your soul every single Sunday this is super songs my Angela has been a writer dancer singer artist professor director and activist she's travelled the world speaks seven languages and is one of the world's greatest poets but to me she's my mother's sister friend as I call her the woman I've looked to for strength and inspiration for more than 35 years now Maya Angelou was born in st. Louis in 1928 by the time she was 7 she'd already suffered her life-changing event she was raped by her mother's boyfriend Maya told her family what had happened and when the man was later found murdered she believed in her seven-year old mine that it was all her fault convinced that her words had the power to kill young Maya didn't speak another word for several years retreating into a private world populated with books in poetry in fact it was poetry that helped her find her voice again as she learned from one of her teachers that great poetry must be spoken and speak she did Maya grew into a confident and an accomplished force of nature as an adult she became a fierce civil rights activist working closely with both Malcolm X and dr. Martin Luther King jr. her seminal autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings published to international acclaim was named by Time magazine to be one of the 100 best non-fiction books of all time never one to slow down dr. Maya Angelou went on to write more than 30 additional books earning countless honors and awards and she just finished her latest piece of work in inspiration sharing some of the deepest personal stories of her life and mom and me and mom she's given motherly advice to millions and is certainly as I've said many times like a mother to me well we've known each other for so long now I actually do feel like your daughter and you are my dog I am your guest man yes and you are my mother yes I am you are my sister yes and have been a friend on that from the very first day we met and you know when I first met you and asked if I could do that interview with you so many years ago I had no I just think how great God is because in that moment I was allowed myself to be vulnerable enough to take the risk of being turned down by you I think I was in my early 20s if that if really yes yes anything but when you said dr. Andrew I said no I'm afraid I'm afraid I can't really I thank you but I'm going to be speaking you said if you'll give me five minutes I promise you I will only spend five minutes so I said all right all right because of your persistence and you had good questions you listened to my answers and you had another good question and then you said thank you so much dr. Angelou I appreciate it and goodbye and I looked at my watch it was exactly five minutes I asked you what did you say your name was tell me your first name again yes you literally said in my memory you say who are you girl that's right yes yeah well one thing is for sure you have over the years continuously surprised me you just you know I discover new things about you all the time and I want all of you to see this clip of all of you super Soler's may not have seen this before I wanted to take a look at this this may surprise you to see this of Maya Angelou let's get the bongos by going the drums drumming and the maracas more rocking as we get going with miss calypso herself Maya [Music] no mine was done in 1957 yes yes ma'am yes for a movie called Calypso heatwave yes ma'am yes so what goes through your mind when you see that well it's amazing I am grateful that I had a chance to do that what would you sitting where you are now say to that young Calypso sooner in that what would you say so average her to forgive it's a one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself Oh forgive forgive everybody just forgive it I'm in mind you we ask the Creator yes to forgive yes stupidest actions yes cruelest mean mean yes mean hearted thing and say God forgive me forgive me or people will say I'm not perfect yes that's right yeah so then you forgive and it relieves you you are relieved of carrying that burden of a resentment you've really are lighter you feel lighter you just drop that drop it so I would encourage her forgive forgive that's the first thing then you're free to do other things to have some ambition and so because forgiveness I know you often say love liberate sus but actually forgiveness does also I mean you can't forgive without loving yes and I don't mean sentimentality I don't mean mush I mean having enough courage to stand out and say I forgive I'm finished with it I had to get to a place where I could forgive the man who had raped me when I was seven years old I had to get there and that was a matter of incredible mental gymnastics and then I had to think of what I had done to other people and see how I'd been forgiven whatever I've done have been forgiven oh and I have to get at least to a place where I can forgive the I don't don't forget and I will not be put myself in a situation where that can be done to me again but I understand coming up would you say that you've had a life filled with possession plus lots more pizzazz and a whole bunch of Ahaz courage Oprah is the most important of all the virtues because without courage you cannot practice any other virtue consistently super soul Sunday we'll be right back [Music] in my angelos latest book she shares the deepest personal story of her life the relationship with her mother Vivian Baxter a former nurse who ran her own gambling Club pool hall and boarding house Vivian Baxter could be as fiery as she was nurturing their relationship like a lot of other daughters was powerful but complicated when seven-year-old Maya stopped speaking Vivian sent Maya and her brother Bailey away to live with their grandmother in rural stamps Arkansas then when Maya turned 13 Vivian call Maya and Bailey home to San Francisco at that time Maya began to truly get to know her mother independent and energetic shrewd and gutsy Vivian Baxter was someone to be reckoned with mom and me and mom and we're gonna talk a lot about that today because I know what Vivian Baxter meant in your life yes and you say that your mother's love encouraged you to live your life with with pizzazz yes would you say that you've had a life filled with possessions you have such a long list of achievements as we were compiling them you were the first black streetcar conductor in the city of San Francisco I was 16 you were 16 yes I was black 16 and and had the nerve to walk I saw women on the street times with a little change of belts but you know that and they had caps with bills on them and they had farm fitting jacket do you like the uniform on and and they'd never hired a black person ever and no so did you see that as the accomplishment that it was at the time no my mother did because mother I said I went down to place an application and they wouldn't even give it to me and so I went back to my mother and that's it they they wouldn't even allow me to apply she asked me why do you know why yes because I'm a Negro she said yes but do you want the job I said yes she said go get it here I'll give you money every day you go down be there before the secretaries get there you sit there in the office you read one of your big thick Russian books I was reading the story of skia told story at something after that she said and then when they go to lunch then you go go to a good restaurant you know how to order good food go back before the secretaries get there I did all of them and then sit there until they leave they laughed at me they pushed out their lips they and use some negative racial things and but I said that at 16 yes but look here's the thing I said that because I was afraid to go home I was afraid to tell my mother that I wasn't as strong as she thought that was why I sat there for two weeks every day and then after two weeks a man came out of his offices had come in and he asked me why do you want the job I like the uniform and I like people and and so I got the job amazing what's amazing is the story that you tell in mom and me of your mother knowing that you were sixteen year old on the streetcars and that she followed you you tell the story about four o'clock in the morning she wake me up with my bath already drawn I take a bath put on my uniform and she would drag me out to the beach and she had her pistol on the seat of the car and she would follow the streetcar all the way from the beach down to the Ferry Building right through San Francisco and back again out to the beach until daybreak I mean stay close to that nobody got on it she didn't see and then at 6:30 I said that's your mother she's a mother that's a month she was really all of that and she asked me much it's enough what did you learn from that job because when when it was time for me to go back to school I went back school I said I learned that I don't I like to work she said what else did you learn I said I don't know she said about yourself you learn that you're very strong the determination Wow dedication and you can go anywhere in the world anyway and I've done everywhere in the world so as we list all of your achievements the first black streetcar conductor dancer singer poet playwright film producer director actor civil rights activist professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University recipient of more than 70 honorary Doctorate degrees an author of more than 30 books is there anything you wanted to have on that list but didn't get a chance to do and one of the things I wanted was to have a daughter I have a son who's my heart wonderful young man wonderful person good human being daring and loving and strong and kind I wanted a daughter and I've taken people's daughters I have certainly taken you I took that my daughter in law because I know I'm a good mother I care and I dare mm-hmm I care enough to let you go but I dare enough to follow you I will say that too and I will say you know one of my part of my nature is to be obedient I'm obedient to God's call and over the years when I would call you for advice sometimes I would take it I know it most often I would take it most often I took it right yes and sometimes I didn't but you have never been the kind of mother that says I told you so no so when I didn't take it and the mistake inevitably happening you were not the kind of mother to come back and say I told you but you were the kind of daughter who said I was wrong I was wrong I should have listened I should have listened first of all have you ever tried and failed at something yes many times many times you forgive yourself for every failure you because you tried to do the right thing God knows that and you know it yeah nobody else may know it yeah because one of the great lessons that I've learned from you and it's so so interesting I was just interviewing Cissy Houston and she recited to me what I have learned from you and I'm now recited to other people so now it's coming back to me and she said well you know when you know better you do better the ticket that's the ticket and it's and that's why you forgive yourself yes maybe because if you've known better I've done bad coming up it was one of the most thrilling moments of Maya's life I was so overcome Oprah the truth is if I had been asked to speak I couldn't speak at that time Maya Angelou has taught me lesson upon lesson over the years and today I want to know what is Maya taught you Facebook or tweet tweet me using hashtag love Maya you know I can't wait to hear from my super soulmates if you've watched The Oprah Show you know which lesson I come back to again and again when you know better you do better when you know better you do better when you know better you do better remember when you know better you do better it's your responsibility in the world when you know better you do better right super soul Sunday we'll be right back [Music] as a girl marguerite and johnson endured trauma and abuse that actually led her to stop speaking but as a performer and ultimately a writer a poet Maya Angelou found her voice it's a voice that spoken to millions including my mother which is why my sister is named Maya by holding on even amid cruelty and loss then expanding to a sense of compassion an ability to love by holding on to her humanity she has inspired countless others who have known injustice and misfortune in their own lives you know I didn't know until that moment when he said that because I was watching at home holding my breath when you were getting that award I didn't know that that's his sister had been named yeah after you so as the Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian honor any one person can receive in our in our country what were you thinking when you were sitting there and the president placed that medal around your neck I thought of my grandma hmm and I thought of my mother and my brother my grandma we might stop talking my grandmother said to me sister my father's mother she said sister mama don't care these people say you must be a idiot you must be a [ __ ] so you can't talk just a mama don't care mama no when you and the good Lord get ready you're gonna be a teacher sister you gonna teach all over this world I sit there and think this poor ignorant woman then she knew I would never speak and now I teach all over the world she also has told me sister when you get give when you learn teach and so when this incredible medal of freedom was given to me I thought of all the Africans who were brought to this country longing for freedom coming on a nightmare and wishing for a dream I thought of the Jews I thought of the Arabs and other people coming from Ireland when the potato blight it absolutely wiped out Ireland I thought of all the people who came looking for freedom I was so overcome Oprah the truth is if I had been asked to speak I couldn't speak at that time I thought of all those people to Ellis Island all those people in Virginia who got off the slave ships in Jamestown I thought of Asians coming to this country building the railroads in 1850 I'm able legally to bring their mates for decades I was so filled that when I was taken out of that room I sobbed in gratitude when you left that room yes ma'am at the White House at the White House and I sobbed him daddy dude oh thank god I thank God I'm myself and I thank God for what the life I'm given to live and I thank God that I can see and hear and smell and taste him I think God for friends and lovers and beloved's and I thank God for knowing that all those people have already paid for me this is one of my favorite lessons these words originally came from I as dear friend the novelist James Baldwin these words are sacred to me your crown has been bought and paid for all you have to do is put it on your head it's a reminder that you already have the power you already have what you need because of those who paved the way and came before you you've already been paid from yes but people who've never even saw your face didn't know what name you would have they paid for you already and so it may be hooves you them to prepare yourself so you can pay for someone else who is yet to come whose name you'll never know face you will never see amazing so you just keep it going the good thing you pave the way yes ma'am for other people to first of all see themselves different yes ma'am yes yeah we'll take a break we'll be right back coming up she said you know I think you're the greatest woman I've ever met how a few kind words from her mother change 22 year old Maya's life forever you know suppose she's right suppose I really am going to be somebody maybe I should stop smoking and stop drinking and stop cursing well I did stop cursing from that day to this I still don't super soul Sunday will be back [Music] my Angelou says it is her intention to write poetry and prose that slide right through the brain and go straight to the heart and that she is done she's poured her soul into more than 30 books that have touched countless hearts and minds all over the world and it all started with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings her and Time magazine just recently named I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as one of the 100 best non-fiction books of all time that have nothing in the history of books for many of us certainly for me I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was my introduction my first encounter with you as I've often shared on The Oprah Show and any time I was talking about how I met you it's it's the first page it's the opening page yeah what you're looking at me for I mean come this day I didn't come to stay I only came to say happy Easter day it was the first time I as a Negro girl because we were called Negroes at the time had ever read about somebody else's life who so closely resembled my own you were raised by your grandmother I was raised by my grandmother you grew up in the church reciting Easter pieces and Christmas pieces and all that that life so for the first time ever reading a book and I loved reading as a child but it's the first time I ever felt validated yes and I felt like someone knows me you knows who I am and I think that's what all of your books do and particularly now as I'm reading the story about you and your mother there's something about the stories of your life that resonate with the stories of all of our lives is that why you wrote it well I don't know if that's why that's one of the pies yes and one of the Y's is because I can write and writers write and writers write also because I wanted to see my mother a little apart from me so that I could really love her life and and once you you love somebody's life means you understand their lives yes and so you can understand why a person there's a certain thing because you say in the book and you've heard you say before about her that she was not a good mother of young children she was terrible terrible for young children and my mother explained to me once I asked her to never tell it again she said when I was about 2 years old 2 or 3 years old that [ __ ] I had asked for something and she didn't give it to me and I had slapped her on her leg and I was we were sitting on the porch and she back-ended me Wow the porch into the dirt she said I didn't have what was necessary far for a young mother I didn't have that but this woman was the greatest mother of a young adult incredible just fantastic she told me once when I was 22 we were walking down the street and she said baby 7 minute and I stopped she said you know I think you're the greatest woman I've ever met I was 22 years old and I looked down at this woman that people tall lady because I had named her late oh and also she owned hotels and things and and people admired her and some were frightened of her rightly she said Mary McLeod Bethune Eleanor Roosevelt and my mother you're in that category give me a kiss and she kissed me on my lips and went across the street to get in their car oh I thought you know suppose she's right suppose I really am going to be somebody oh maybe I should stop smoking and stop drinking and stop cursing well I did stop cursing really really but it's rare for me the user profane word very bad coming up people ask me quite often what it's like to be maya angelou son Maya's son guy shares memories of his magnificent mom and your greatest gift to me is super soul Sunday we'll be right back [Music] people ask me quite often what it's like to be maya angelou son did you grow up in our shadow and no I didn't I grew up in our light sometimes I wasn't worthy of it but it has always been an experience that expanded me she thinks that the divine hand isn't all things she has faith that's like a rock you can stand on it she speaks to our humanity and reminds us that we are both brother and sister to the rest of the human race keep on speaking mind we need the lessons the beautiful poems books movies dances celebrations I have to ask you you've put out so much art in the world what part or piece of art are you proudest of is there one are there several is it the body of art yeah your words yes it'll be songs lyrics some music I think my greatest blessing my greatest blessing has been the birth of my son my next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine oh it's my greatest blessing and sometimes you know I have you know what your greatest gift to me is is that every one of us who considers ourselves to be your daughter or your son every one of us thinks we're the most special so I think that is the mark of a great mother is to make everyone feel like they are the special one and you know you really are thank you for that I remember that when Gail's mother passed and I spoke at her mother's funeral all the sisters said we thought we were her favorites each sister yeah I thought they were absolute that's a gift that a mother can give dr. Angelo's mother Vivian Baxter or lady as she affectionately called her personified courage passion above a shoe spirit and a steelwill Maya has said to describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power the greatest story of all the stories I've heard in this book and heard you tell about your mother over the years and I had the pleasure and honor of meeting miss being back there myself and seeing her at your house but the greatest story is when you were I don't know I don't remember how old you were when you were working and you've gotten off of work and this the guy picks you up at work yeah tell that story and the man who is a loving man and love loving romantically as well pick me up and drove me out to the area in Cal in San Francisco so heffman babe - babe he asked me to get out of the car I got out of the car you'd been dating him for a while yes and he was really wonderful I thought who and and when I walked around the tarted I thought we were a romantic plays out by the bay and so for him he hit me with his fist well and he had been a prizefighter he hit me beat me and sometimes I'd go unconscious and I'd come to him and look at him and he would they had a big plank and hit me and I'd go out again the next thing I knew I was in the back of his car and he drove to a restaurant in San Francisco at that time called Betty Lou's chicken shack and he pulled up there and he called the men over and show and showed them he said this is what you do to a B who's cheating on you and the people looked and they went back in and told me it's Betty Lou if this man has your friend's daughter in the back of his car I think she's dead miss Betty Lou called my mother and my mother went to her pool hall and she got two of them yeah she went there and got the baddest the most card of people she could find she said I want you to come with me and she found where the man lived and she knocked at the door not me what were you there that's what I couldn't about for two or three days he was he kept he'd like held you can yes the next thing I heard was loud shouting in the hall and and my mother said break Dustin sob down break it down my baby's in there and the two huge men broke down the door so she rescued you this is what I love about the story your mother comes through the door she breaks through the door after three days she rescued you nurses you back to house takes care of you yes and then one day says go get him those is where he is and she had friends who knew him and you she'd put the word out on him I wouldn't mess with Viviane Baxter no ma'am not mess with her she wasn't playing swim plan she said I laugh and joke with I don't play coming up with Maya Angelou refuses to allow in her sacred space its vulgarity and it's poison you will not do it in my house plus one of my favorite Maya poems is our celebration of this phenomenal woman continues Facebook or tweet tweet me using hashtag love Maya we'll be right back [Music] tell me this you say words or things and that they're so powerful do you have a favorite word oh love love is your favorite yeah are there words that you might Angelo as a writer just like the sound of and the murmur you'd like murmur mu RM you are good murmur you can't shout murmur it is murmur murmur you can't shout murmur no the one thing that I think that I have admired and loved about you that I couldn't articulate it just occurred to me now I remember once being in your house and somebody was telling a joke and you were on the other we had a party it was a lot of noise in the room and they were making telling a joke and it was a racist homosexual joke and you stopped the party mm-hmm first of all I couldn't believe I was like how can she hear that and she's all the way over there but you stopped the party and asked the person to excuse themselves and leave your house yes exactly I say this your coat did you come with anyone both of you come this way I know no no no I so and everybody else is like whoa what just happened and then you said to all of us I will not allow it in my house that's right it's vulgarity and it's poison and this is what a person must know I know there are black people who say oh you can use the n-word to me because I'm I'm black no it is poison all of that any racial pejorative sexual pejorative any of that stuff it's created to make a person less than human and that means it's poison nobody can use it safely I mean if poison is poison that you get from a pharmacy and it has pors so in on it and skull and bones yes you can't take that content and pour it into Bavarian crystal and make it otherwise it's still poison yeah so you and you don't want it cling to the walls get into the upholstery in your clothes and soonerlater right into you right into you yes okay so this is what I want to know where didn't you get the courage to not allow it in your space because there have been many of you are watching right now people say things they make you uncomfortable they start a joke that's gonna be you know it's leaning down a racial path or homophobic path or whatever and people just sort of people laugh nervously at it because they don't know how to stop it how do you stop it you don't stop it by doing it immediately you develop courage courage oprah is the most important of all the virtues because without courage you cannot practice any other virtue consistently you can be anything erratically now and then kind fare true generous just blah blah but to do that thing time after time so what you do is you do it in small ways I mean if you wanted to pick up a hundred pound weight you wouldn't just go pick up stir pick five pound well that's the same way you do with courage you do the courageous thing a small one and you like yourself and then you do another two or three like you said better and before you know it you're able to say excuse me not in my house you don't you don't paint my walls with poison and vulgarity you will not do it in my house out is this your purse thank you goodbye I have seen it because you believe that words or things yes ma'am I know they are you can put some words together and make people want to go to war put another few words and make them long for peace yeah words are so important and this is what you take to God words you may not frame them but God knows your heart yes so when you go down on your knees or in your bed or riding in a car and you pray you're using words I'm lonely I'm hungry I'm lost I'm in pain whatever your words are help they are words they inform not only God but anybody around you how you really feel they are able you're able to speak in nuances so be careful how knows them yes ma'am because they carry the power yes ma'am yeah thank you thank you thank you Maya Angela thank you they met Oh peewee next time on super soul Sunday living legend at my Angelo returns with even more life lessons love liberates she's sharing her secrets to aging beautifully what can you say about the 80s oh my god do it if you can plus new insights into a fascinating relationship with her mother even at 16 when he became pregnant yeah she did not shame me learn it all and a revelation that moves my into tears it still humbles me and I'm amazed at it join us why don't you for part two of my conversation with awe inspiring Maya Angelou we'll end our show today with a tribute to the phenomenal woman in her own words many people wonder where my secret lies I'm not cute a bill to suit a fashion model sighs when I start to tell them they think I'm telling lies I say it's in the reach of my arms the span of my hips the stride of my step the curl of my lips I'm a woman phenomenally I walk into a room just as cool as you please and to a man the fellow stand or fall down on their knees then they swarm around me a hive of honey bees I say it's the fire in my eyes the flash of my teeth the swing in my waist the joy in my feet I'm woman phenomenally men themselves have wondered what they see in me they try so much but they can't touch my inner mystery when I tried to show them they say they still can't see I said it's in the arch of my back the son of my smile the ride of my breasts the grace of my style and a woman phenomenally now you understand just why my head's not bowed I don't shout or jump about I'll have to talk realigned when you see me passing it out to make you proud I say it's in the click of my heels the bend of my hair the palms of my hands the need for my care because I'm a woman phenomenally Phenomenal Woman oh you women [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: MR.X

Views: 260,970

Rating: 4.9083757 out of 5

Keywords: talk show, guest, Soul, Oprah Gail Winfrey, Super, SuperSoul Sunday, Sunday

Id: GJ-ZjrwHwKs

Length: 42min 18sec (2538 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2020