Sarana VerLin and her dear friend Beaux Mitchell
Tonight I was speaking with a new friend Beaux Mitchell. Miss Beaux is a poet, singer, songwriter, teacher and marvelous woman. I felt as if I had known her all my life and yet we have never been in the same room. Thanks to Sarana for getting Beaux's number for me!
Beaux is nominated for a few Detroit Music Awards and I tried my best to get her to come out tomorrow to the show. She might surprise us and be there. If not I am going to pick up her awards!!!
Dr Maya Angelou
I was first introduced to Maya Angelou's book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" in college by a very enlightened teacher named Kathleen Steele. It was a book on our reading list for our Humanities class.
From the very first beginning...
A young Marguerite (Maya) stands in front of her church congregation on Easter, unable to finish reciting a poem. She wears an unflattering altered taffeta dress that, she notes, is probably a secondhand dress from a white woman, and she fantasizes that one day she will wake up out of her “black ugly dream” and be white and blond instead of a large, unattractive African American girl. After being humiliated in front of everyone and tripped by another child, she ends up running out of church peeing, crying, and laughing all at the same time.
Maya's life stories became my addiction... I have read every one of her published works. She doesn't know me. I was just a young white girl searching for meaning in my life. But I feel I know her... Her pride, her fearlessness and determination were boundless. She inspires me to this day to follow my dreams and touch other souls wherever I can.
Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.
Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou was raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. In Stamps, Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture.
(born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928) an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences.
The first and most highly acclaimed, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her first seventeen years. It brought her international recognition, and was nominated for a National Book Award. She has been awarded over 30 honorary degrees and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her 1971 volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie.
And Still I Rise
THIS IS DEDICATED TO BEAUX ,JILL, AND GENEVA
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and is tune is heard
on the distant hillfor the caged bird
sings of freedom
The free bird thinks of another breeze
an the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
Maya Angelou
