The Story About Maya Angelou that you have never heard in her own words.

the relationship that I have with Maya Angelou comes from a place in a space that is beyond just the two of us she's a woman who has jumped into so many different roles in different parts of her life she's an author she's a civil rights activist a dancer she's a singer dr. Maya Angelou is beyond the words pioneer Maya Angelo's greatest accomplishment is really the fact that she has liberated herself enough to be able to tell the truth it feels to me like she is a gift to be provided by a divine source God there's nothing I don't love about my life it's a struggle but that's life that's why they call it life [Music] she was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in st. Louis in 1928 to Bailey Johnson a Navy dietitian and Vivian Baxter a real estate agent and nurse older brother Bailey jr. gave her the nickname Maya Maya was a toddler when the family moved west my mother and father agreed to disagree and divorced and they sent me and my brother alone by train from Los Angeles California - stamps Arkansas you know you take two little children and put them on a train and send them down south I guess they did that back then but oftentimes the children will feel abandoned there was only the timeit's of the pullman car porters and the dining car waiters who took us off change and put us another train that we've really arrived in stamps arkansas with one-way ticket spend to 4-year old Bailey's coat Maya then three and her brother were met by their grandmother Annie Henderson who raised them for four years my grandmother and my uncle Willy owned a store it was the only black owned store in the town largely absent their father reappeared briefly before Maya and Bailey were uprooted yet again and returned to their mother in Missouri then we were taken picked up and taken to st. Louis - my mother's people we're very very educated very erudite very sophisticated all of that but here Maya suffered a terrifying ordeal that would change her young life I was molested she had been raped by someone that my grandmother lady Baxter knew and she only told my father who the man was later maybe a couple days later they found the man and he had been kicked to death probably by her uncle's my seven-year-old logic told me that my voice had killed him so I stopped speaking my mother's people and my mother did their best tried to rule me away from my mutism but they didn't know what my voice could do after the rape my am Bailey was sent back to stamps Arkansas to live with grandmother Henderson my mother and her people sent me and Bailey back to to stamps it was heaven on earth because my grandmother my father's mother there was all of that she thought I was the bee's knees here you have this adoring grandmother over six feet tall immaculate in her big starched white aprons Marguerite was able to just be a little girl there and be free and be loved I felt I could speak to Bailey because I left him so much that nothing I could do with her again during a time when at Maya was mute after the rape she only talked to Bailey he encouraged her he told her he that she was brilliant that she was beautiful he lifted her up what I appreciate the most about the story about her being mute is that her grandmother said baby you'll talk when you read people wanted to look at her and say that something was wrong she's I suppose she's ready she'll talk for over five years Maya was mute but the attention of a concerned teacher helped the traumatized girl we gained her voice thank grandmother gave me a tablet so I just I wrote everything and there was a black lady in my parent mrs. flowers who came to the store she told my grandmother she'd like to take me to the school the black school she said I want you to read every book in this in this room I tell you it seemed like thousands of books to me I found poetry so I memorize things I memorized I mean all nights done by James Weldon Johnson I had Edgar Allen Poe I like Poe so much I called him he and I memorize 30 more than that son it took Shakespeare and his flowers she would report me to him and Marguerite would tell her all that she loved poetry she'd write it on a note I love boy she's in you do not like poetry I wrote yes ma'am she wouldn't even look at my tablet and the teacher would tell her no you don't you don't love poetry you can only love poetry if you can say it and hear it until you feel it come across your tongue over your lips out into air you push to that I tell you I will I thought she was taking my best friend away I think it was mrs. flowers who always had said to her one day I know you're gonna speak and it was because of poetry that she finally was able to regain her voice in poetry Maya discovered the beauty and power of words but real life more often showed her pain and ugliness Bailey had seen em not missed but he had seen him after he was benched I was thinking he was 15 in the south at that time a black boy in particular barely black man - but a black boy had to get off the street and one time in major live a white man and my person was better at best and Bailey refused and make them ever heard about me and she said they mentioned I can't say them as she tells the story of Bailey and the story of the family making a choice to protect the son to protect the black man are removing him from the south it is in part a story about how African peoples and America black people in this country are here were of the land we've worked the land we've bled and swept them to the land and yet somehow in order to be fully human have to leave the very land that we've cultivated next Maya Briggs down a racial barrier in San Francisco there were no black streetcar conductor is no black female street car conductors and my set out to become the first you you [Music] now a team and nearly to her 6 foot height Maya and her family returned to California where her boldness got her hired as San Francisco's first black streetcar conductor and to the John went as a street cart investor in San Francisco I was 16 there weren't that many jobs at african-american women could get young at that time but there were a few there were no black streetcar conductor is no black female street car conductors and my set out to become the first I could see her as a young woman daring to apply for a job at the streetcar conductor daring to do it so I had seen women on the street car and I was like Tibet they had uniforms and a little money changer you know and they had a cat with a bib on it and I thought that looked kind of cute in that I said that wasn't a bit good job on the streetcar so my mother said well I'm going reply I went down to the pace they wouldn't even accept give me an application finally after about three weeks a man came out of it he asked me what was my but experience that I had and I'd like it jumpered who I said I had been the chauffeur rent a music music Annie Henderson and stamp second time he was six feet tall very very well-built beautiful chocolate skin and she walked with such grace and pride can you imagine somebody why is height running the streetcar huh can you I couldn't believe it myself I knew it myself when I first heard that I would see the cable cars going by and I'll just be like there's you know there's no way that this could this could happen but I guess it really is a test you never know who was really driving your bus driving your cab or driving anything at 16 Mya after a brief romance with another team she was another so yeah I know that she was mothered so well so she knew how to take care of her son and she took guy with her everywhere after graduating from high school Maya went from struggling Teen Mom to fulfilled artists after supporting herself and baby guy mainly as a cook and a waitress in the early 50s Maya married Greek sailor toss Angeles though the marriage was short Maya began pursuing her dream to dance after her divorce she took the name Angela and studied dancing from the time I was 14 and got a scholarship to study at the California Labor school I studied modern ballet and I got a scholarship to study with Miss pero premise in New York and I went to New York and studied carrying my phone all the while when she talks about that period in her life when she was dancing she just glows you know she lights up because you know that that was the engine if you will that really propelled forward into everything else done Manson writing where the only thing I ever really loved to do you know that you know her first dance part it was Alvin Ailey and when we think about that then we know that if you're dancing with Alvin Ailey you have to be a great dancer not satisfied only to dance Maya found another outlet for her creativity and excelled started singing for living in San Francisco with the Phyllis Diller Mort Sahl and the Kingston Trio in 1954 she joined a European tour of Porgy and Bess George Gershwin's soulful opera about black life in South Carolina she was just always following who she was and that's her she's always you know striving to open up to become more of who she is after the tour she returned to clubs then landed a recording deal earning notoriety with it who was Jordan and Ella Fitzgerald novelty song every singing in Las Vegas I was a spent libertine beckus to do an album I purchased it it was an LP very difficult to forget because she was wearing a long red dress she was barefooted he had a huge afro and she was singing with the West Indian accent still told well hey I am a sucker for calypso music and I loved it that she was the Calypso Queen of the west coast the Calypso period was interesting I was about 10 we were living in Los Angeles for the for a significant element of that at that time it was considered exotic her passion started you know the dancing and the singing and to see her today I mean III what I want to know is did she see that then did she see where she could go or where she was at absolutely go where she was just an artist trying to feed her child and get some type of level of respect that maybe a modicum of of success next how Maya made her mark back east in New York I said to myself this is a woman to be reckoned with and I'm staying away from her you [Music] you looking to commit herself to serious writing in 1959 Angelou moved back to New York and hooked up with writer friends in Harlem where a new and vibrant literary scene was flourishing Harlem has never been an exclusively black space but it has been a uniquely black space one that has had kind of a an incubator for black cultural or artistic capacity the authors who founded the Gil which was Rose a guy dr. John Henry Clark John all of the killings and Walter Christmas they needed a hiding place but they could meet and honed their craft and learn from each other she says that they would meet in someone's apartment and just be up all night writing exchanging ideas when Maya Angelou engages in New York in the Harlem Writers Guild particularly with men like Killins who are very interested in writing things that are often grotesque and difficult john maya says you don't really encouraged her to pursue the writing come to New York and join the writers go come to New York to find a community of black writers who will be there to support you it was like coming home so late she's described experience it helped her to hone her you know it was writing skills tight in this crowd Maya blossomed she wrote she sang at the Apollo Theater and acted on stage in John jenay's the blacks the first day of rehearsal she walked in with a very close friend Abby Lincoln and she towered over everyone and it suited a power that I had not recognized in anyone other than my mother it was in her height it was in her carriage it was in her voice and I said to myself this is a woman to be reckoned with and I stayed away from her she also became more politically engaged and worked for dr. Martin Luther King jr. in New York when I was 14 my mother took the position of a head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for dr. Martin Luther King and Maya Angelou is not a marginal person she does not hang out on the sides or the corners of the room or in the shadows right she's she's at the center of it and it's true whether we're talking about you know her experiences in civil rights movement or the anti-colonial movement my mother's people friends were people like Dan's father Oscar Brown jr. before it became famous who knew what famous was Godfrey Cambridge was driving a cab when I met him the only people who had any money were sending portiere and Harry Belafonte and the only reason I knew they had money was when dr. king came to town and needed money those were the guys he went to she's capturing and embodying a moment not unlike our own moment the election of President Obama brought a variety of entertainers show folk people who were just on the edge of politics fully into the political realm I think the civil rights movement had some of that same sense of wait a minute we're making history and I want to be part of making history I want to have that story to tell but Angelou stint at SCLC was cut short when she fell in love with South African activist bazooms e machi they married and in 1960 along with guy moved to Cairo in Egypt Angelou worked as an editor for an english-language weekly when the brief marriage ended in 1961 my end guy relocated to the West African nation of Ghana where she worked as an editor and journalist and traveled in a lively circle of expats he can read work from many African Americans during the 50s and 60s became engaged in the anti-colonial movement there's a sense of the broader reality of blackness that is seductive politically and culturally when Maya Angelou was in Ghana well the time when Malcolm came to Ghana they would have dinners for him and stay up way into the night talking to him about his beliefs and what he what difference he was gonna make next Maya comes home to work with Malcolm X but her hope for her country is met by tragedy my sister Fran caller she has me sister have you have you listened to the telephone and radio letter and say no she said don't answer the phone I'm on my way [Music] you after more than four years in Africa Angelou returned to the u.s. to find a very different country than she had left the battle for civil rights had grown heated and soon turned bloody freedom is what all human beings require as an african-american it was something that you know we had been struggling for for 250 years my mother went home to work for Malcolm X it was her plan when she you know was coming back came back from Africa where she'd been living to work with Malcolm because she was so moved by this great work that he was about to embark upon what's really beautiful about both of their lives is that they were very young activists you know they they lived Purpose Driven Life and came back to the states to work mid Mountain from Donna the second Bay he died he was killed it pains me when I when I think of the relationship that she had with Malcolm she came back from Africa to meet with him I didn't have that chance to do distraught over Malcolm's murder Angelou sought solace by returning to her singing this time in Hawaii my brother came to the house I'm staying with my mother just come back from Africa and I I was just constantly in tears I was hysteria he said come on I want to buy you a drink he took me up and down to Fillmore district in San Francisco he's a bat more choose to go to Hawaii we had an aunt there and start the same you thing so I went away and got a job as a singer but as Billie Holiday told Angelou you're gonna be famous but not for singing very well when my customers started fading away where are they going I never thought my mother was a good singer because she was we knew so many people like Nina Simone Ella Fitzgerald Abby Lincoln and when she was in Porgy and Bess she was with people who could flip two octaves in their voice and could hold it for 60 seconds you know what I mean she was a great entertainer though great and so some guy Cathy bar I said they got a real singer down the street that cute so I went down and the real thing I stepped out on that stage and she took it the realest thing of its Daenerys dollar means saying no I did she was pretty I went back to my friend is been decided to write reenergized from her time in Hawaii Angelou returned to the mainland involved to help realize the visions of Malcolm X and dr. Martin Luther King jr. she got involved in the movement because listen they were there at a time when everybody who had anything to offer to our people and could be of use she understood that she had a role to play and a responsibility to be involved in the civil rights movement her support of King her marching I think what my Angelou gave to the civil rights movement and the healing that took place during that period in this country is really not as well-known as it should be oh I have people who will tell you stories about her bravery you know about her breaking through barricades to save people from police bullies you know stories of her standing up to brute force to protect children and really doing whatever it took to break through those barricades those those thick walls of racism in 1968 dr. King asked Maya to help with a march for the poor she agreed but with the caveat Jimmy Baldwin was going to speak at penny get off with dr. Martin Luther King so Jimmy asked me and the family had a box so he lived and everybody was great of course and Martin king who naughty then he spoke that was it I had worked for him he is before and that can fit Maya I tell you I would like you to come back with me for one month just one month I'm going to need this March this poor people's March so I need money I'd like you to go around the country go to every major city go to every black church and ask each preacher to give me just that the collection one day a year and he said preachers black preachers love pretty women and Jimmy Baldwin said she'll go she'll do it and I said yes okay I said the only thing is I will do it after my birthday I have to explain to everybody why I'm coming back to with you ever I went from one month my birthday is April the fourth on April the fourth I was cooking up the food but my party when my sister friend called chef just to have you have you listened to the telephone and radio ISM I didn't know she said don't answer the phone I'm on my way she came she came in the apartment she said sister my little teen is dead [Music] I tell you all together just just all my stuff all my stuff I had no more there there once again there she is on the cusp of you know packing her bags and you know getting ready to hit the road to work for Martin and he too is assassinated because Martin was killed on that Maya's birthday for many years she didn't even celebrate her birthday she often sighs deeply such pain such loss and she always talks about you know we will never know you know the potential of what might have happened these people's death shattered our hopes it hers as well with now both Malcolm and Martin dead Angelou and their widows formed a powerful and lasting friendship over the years she and Coretta King developed a very close sisterhood miss Coretta was her sister friend and that was her brother friend and the fact that that a life could be taken on her birthday you know it's just it does hurt hurt Maya Angelou and Coretta King and Betty Shabazz we're all very good friends that was one powerful sisterhood Betty Shabazz Coretta Scott King and Maya Angelou listen I've actually been in the room with all of those women at the same time and felt like I was seven years old I think I was 40-something at the time but I felt like I was seven and that's that's really quite an extraordinary experience to be surrounded by that much feminine you know african-american female hour whew that's a lot it was also after dr. King's death that Angelou revisited the most harrowing days of her childhood after a book editor introduced by James Baldwin dared her to write her autobiography in 1969 she met the challenge delving into her past and in doing so rewriting black woman's place in American I called her and wrote her to try to get her to write something she was very reluctant to do that he called me about three times I finally sort of shamed her I said you know why I think writing autobiography is the hardest thing in the world because autobiography as literature is almost never achieved I know he had spoken to James Baldwin because Jamie filled with him if you really want it done tell her she can't believe it and she said wait a minute she said I'll do it and she started writing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings I was so literally fascinated by that story because I thought first of all I'd never read a book about a woman who was a black woman who story was so similar to my own you know one of the first on the first page of the book it starts with what should be looking at me for it didn't come to say only came to say Happy Easter day and I grew up in the church doing Easter pieces I am familiar with those lines I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a book that is raw and and tells it like it is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was not only liberating for Maya Angelou as I'm sure it was but had liberated black women too because up until that book was written few if any black women had ever written about sexual violation they gave us voice and wisdom and truths and opened the way for us to really look at our own lives and reflect on our own pain and our own growth and history everybody could identify with her life and the mistakes you make and how you must have the courage to bounce back and I think that's what that book did for a lot of people it was it was a foundation for courage the book went on to sell more than 4 million copies was translated into 18 languages sold in 19 countries and in 1979 was adapted to a made-for-television movie over the next three decades Angelou wrote more than 30 best-selling books earned three Grammy Awards earned a Tony nomination directed a feature film and earned numerous honorary degrees next Angelou is presented with the opportunity of a lifetime at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton I remember going to Chanel and buying that coat for her because she was like well I don't even know what I'm gonna wear and I go let me I'll figure it out you you of all the titles she has earned poet is how most of us think of dr. Angelou the reach of my arms the span of my hips the stride of my step the curl of my lips because I'm a woman phenomenally Phenomenal Woman so now you understand why my head's not bowed well I don't even shout or even have to talk real loud but when you see me coming you'd ought to make you proud I say it's the bend of my hair the palm of my hand the need for my care because I'm a woman phenomenally Phenomenal Woman that's me I probably have done that poem I would say more than my Angelou my as a poet has you know just blossomed and grown and created these poems that speak to our to our experience and when I say our experiences to the african-american experience but to our experience of female experience to our experience the human experience it is her voice to which America so often turns to give our public milestones personal resonance in 1993 the world watched as she read an original composition at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton making her the first poet since Robert Frost to take part in that ceremony when President Clinton asked her to do the poem I was here I was here visiting her and she was living in this house and she got very still very still and very quiet so I think she went to that place inside of herself that she tells me about that there is a place inside of us that no one in touch I'll never forget that morning during the Clinton inauguration and when Maya Angelou stepped to the microphone to the podium and recited on the pulse of morning one of the most exquisite pieces of prose ever I remember going to Chanel and buying that coat for her because she was like well I don't even know what I'm gonna wear and I go let me I'll figure it out and I bought that coat because I just wanted her to have some piece of me some part of me to be you know with her here on the pulse of this fine day you may have the courage to look up and out and upon me the rock the river the tree your country no less to Midas than the mendicants no less to you now than the mastodon then here on the pulse of this new day you may have the grace to look up and out and into your sisters eyes and into your brother's face your country and say simply very simply with hope good morning it said something about Bill Clinton to me and I think to a lot of people that he would invite Maya Angelou to take such an important place such an important role as his inauguration and so many of us were very very pleased about that that platform that exposure was larger than she ever had although the world knows her majestic voice her elegant and imposing stature family and friends know dr. Maya Angelou as a loving and giving supporter the ultimate friend and confidant we started out as women to women in the grew into this spiritual bond of friendship sisterhood her being a mother counselor mentor for me I know that she understands a mother's love the love of a mother and giving a love to her though I know she understands that very deeply and she called me one day and she just said I had hello darling girl I can't do her voice justice hello darling girl I was just calling to see how is your heart what a wonderful way to say how you doing she was just grandma I don't even think I really recognize who she was as a world figure or artist or anything until maybe I was 13 14 years old often times if I'm having trouble with with with with with a family member or or or one of my daughters has given me a hard time I'll call her and she says well if you need me I'll just fly to you I'll be there with her 2004 cookbook dr. Angelou showed off her excellent cooking skills and love for entertaining dr. Angelou is known for her almost like fireside chats you know when you sit around over some food some everything happens around food with her an invitation to my Angela's home in North Carolina is the golden ticket you're going to have fascinating people sitting at the table is there a better evening I don't think so in 1998 the first Maya Angelou charter school opened in Washington DC reaching out to troubled students recalling how education turned her life around Angelou stays closely involved with the program she's available not only well-known people like Oprah Winfrey who loves her beyond she's available to the community to people who we don't know to people who aren't in the lights whose names aren't in lights who aren't you know famous but who have a worthy cause at 81 dr. Angelou shows no signs of slowing she recently penned a book letter to my daughter compiling wisdom for the girl child never had I was one of the people she dedicated it to and I didn't even know I was in it it might not be what you need right this moment but there's gonna be a period in your life there's gonna be something that's gonna happen what you're gonna reach for that book and the answer that you mean is gonna be right there still growing and curious dr. Angelou is currently enrolled in Divinity School it's just so that I can be more better more giving more wise I think that's a great lesson for us all for people who think I am all that I am really good I'm all set I'm straight you know that here she is still trying to be better do better herself conquering abuse as a little girl in st. Louis and mutinous as a young girl in stamps Arkansas Maya Angelou became a dancer singer actor activist poet author teacher student friend mother grandmother a survivor with her life and words she has inspired generations Maya Angelou has given us a legacy you know we'll be as that it's possible whatever it is it is possible and because of Maya Angelou we were able and we have black women have been able to be accepting of ourselves I think she had a lot to do with that legacy will be to live fully even though you make mistakes that it's good you learn for me the mistakes if you keep moving and I think that you never never ever give up you will still see here to book signing hold hands and hug for out for over an hour when she should you know she should be home but the fact that she is willing to put aside how she feels and what she's going through for others is - it's it's my that is dr. Maya Angelou the real legacy is how she moved people to a higher knowing of themselves you just don't know all the lives that she has touched and so the legacy is every life that was moved by her words every life that was moved by her being here so you can't write what that legacy is we don't know what that like to see it but I never buy my life there's nothing I don't love about my life it's a struggle but that's life that's why they call it life when I see cruelty that's that's unfair I'm listen it's nasty courtesy to anyone just rude and stupid but I don't see a lot of that and if I do I try to do something about it rather than I don't do sit in the dark and curse the dark I try to light a match mr. president and mrs. Clinton mr. vice president and mrs. Gore and Americans everywhere I rock a river a tree posts two species long since departed marked the Mastodon the dinosaur who left dry tokens of their sojourn here on our planet floors any broad alarm of their hastening Doom is lost in the gloom of dust and ages but today the rock cries out to us clearly forcefully come you may stand up on my back and face your distant destiny but seek no havens in my shadows I will give you no hiding place down here you created only a little lower than the Angels you

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Published: Wed Feb 17 2016

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[u/June_6391]

Birdbuddi: This is Zita2007. I pray that all is safe and well with you! Thanks for presenting the story of Maya Angelou. I shared the video with the President of the Celebrate Maya Project located in Little Rock, Arkansas. She sent a message and I will share it with you in your message box. Maya Angelou was raised in Arkansas in a small town named Stamps. The Celebrate Maya Project was founded after Maya Angelou passed and it is really a great organization with many great volunteers and supporters! Just as you started the Meyhive to defend, celebrate and support the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle....so, too does Celebrate Maya remember the wonderful life of the late Maya Angelou!

Thanks for your unending support of Meghan Markle as she needs all of the love and support she can get (and so deserve)!

I will send the message later after I figure out what I need to do( I’m not tech savvy at all😂😂😂)! Just keep checking!

All the best, Zita2007