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| Maya Angelou by trueartist83 |
"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends." Because "[p]rejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible."
~Maya Angelou
These are points I've tried to express at the center of my current trilogy, though my mountains of words seem so clumsy compared to her few, poignant ones.
A little about Maya Angelou:
Born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, MO in 1928, Maya was an all-around artist: singer, dancer, actress, composer, movie director, writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet! Not only that, but she was also a civil rights activist, a professor, served on presidential committees, and has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In short, she was a true "global renaissance woman."
She passed away onto the next world just yesterday.
For more about her and her works:
Video - Dr. Angelou recites "And Still I Rise":
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A very nice tribute. Poetry is indeed the art of brevity. I don't know Ms. Angelou's poetry (will read some), but try this: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1996/szymborska-poems-3-e.html (a translation of a poem by Wislawa Szymborska, a Polish Nobel Prize winner).
ReplyDeleteI liked it a lot! Particularly the part about nothing. Makes me think of the number 0, which was such a difficult concept for some civilizations to hold. Can't even imagine how they'd feel about imaginary numbers... :)
DeleteThanks for sharing!