International Women’s Day. A Reflection on The Life of Maya Angelou
International Women’s Day is a worldwide celebration of women’s rights. The month of March is also the month where we celebrate the contributions women have made throughout history. Women have fought and are still fighting so hard to be heard, still fighting against social discrimination and legal obstacles. Many of them have paved the road for us, enlarged the door of possibilities and created a legacy to follow. There are so many women to celebrate not just in March but all year long. Today, I choose to celebrate one of the wonder women, Maya Angelou.
Who is Maya Angelou? Maya Angelou was an American poet, singer and passionate civil rights activist who collaborated with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights movement. She had such a glorious career and had blessed us with many books of essays, poetry and much more. I enjoy reading her quotes and poetries but watching her live videos is so refreshing. She was full of grace and elegance. My favorite live video of her was ” Still I Rise”.
I think every quote from Maya derived from something. It could be about God, freedom, life, courage, loneliness, love, hope and work. A blog post really cannot define her work and contribution to this world but can only reflect how exceptional she was.
Maya Angelou. April 4, 1928-May 28, 2014.
Here’s my favorite poem
Still I Rise
You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.
From And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou. Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou.
