Alone on a stage, she captured the minds and hearts of about 2,500 people with her words, her song, her wisdom. In her 80 years, she has shared the lessons of her life’s journey with an eagerly receptive crowd.
PHOTOS BY FRANK GALIPO Author Maya Angelou delivered an inspirational talk at Brookdale Community College on Feb. 25. Angelou appeared at the Lincroft school to mark Black History Month, which is celebrated in February, and Women’s History Month, which is celebrated in March. Maya Angelou, renowned poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil rights activist, producer and director, talked about the human experience and the common threads that all of us share.
According to Angelou, “Human beings are more alike than unalike.” She encouraged people to liberate themselves through education, and to not hoard their gifts, but to share them with others, daring to be a “rainbow in somebody else’s cloud.”
In a combined celebration of February as Black History Month and March as Women’s History Month, Angelou was invited to Brookdale Community College’s Lincroft campus to make an appearance on Jan. 28.
Angelou delved into her past and shared stories of her upbringing. She talked about the time when she and her brother were sent to live with their grandmother, Annie Henderson, in Stamps, Ark.
She unraveled stories of her childhood, telling the audience about her Uncle “Willy,” a crippled store owner, who helped her to learn her multiplication tables. Angelou credits him for who she is today, a person who at age 80 can say, “I’m still beginning. Every day I have a chance to be it, to do it, to share it.”
She said the lessons and values instilled in her by extended family members helped to shape who she is. She encouraged the audience to do the same.
“When you get, give. When you learn, teach,” Angelou said. “The only way to liberate ourselves is to liberate ourselves from ignorance. If we’re fortunate enough, we should liberate others,” Angelou said.
She added, “All you have to do is liberate yourself, so you can liberate those yet to come.”
She encouraged the audience to have the courage to do their best. “Many of you need to remember just who you are. Courage is the most important virtue; without it, you can’t practice any other virtue.
“Make your gifts accessible to everyone,” she urged. The multitude of colors, religions, creeds, she said, belong to all of us.
“Stop limiting yourself. You’ve already been paid for by the blood of your ancestors,” Angelou said.
In a humorous aside during the lecture, she told the audience, “I did not come here to preach. I was just going to recite a few poems.”
The audience didn’t seem to mind taking direction from an American icon. Her jovial spirit created electricity in the atmosphere. She told the audience to do things with a cheerful spirit and immediately say “yes” to anything good.
She sang, and she recited poetry with a rhythm all her own, reiterating the current undertone of her presentation.
“When it look like the sun don’t shine anymore, God put a rainbow in the clouds,” Angelou sang.
She received an honorarium for appearing at the college. Angelou joked that she was more than happy to be at the college after traveling by tour bus from Winston- Salem, N.C., her current residence.
Angleou has lived a life that many dream of. She overcame the obstacles of her past and followed her passions.
In 1952 she began her career as a nightclub singer, which led her to tour Europe with a production of the opera “Porgy and Bess” in 1954 and 1955. She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows, and recorded her first record album, “Calypso Lady,” in 1957, according to information provided by the website American Academy of Achievement.org, a nonprofit aimed at connecting students with the greatest thinkers and achievers of our
age.
In the 1950s she moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild. She acted in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s “The Blacks” and wrote and performed “Cabaret for Freedom.” Angelou also lived in Cairo, Egypt, where she worked as an editor of the English language weekly The Arab Observer, according to the website Achievement.org.
The list of her published works includes more than 30 titles, and among them are “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (1970); “Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Die” (1971); “Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now” (1993); “Even the Stars Look Lonesome” (1997); “Gather Together in My Name” (1974); “Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas” (1976); “The Heart of a Woman” (1981); “All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes” (1987); and “A Song Flung Up to Heaven” (2002).
Angelou wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the film “Georgia, Georgia” (1972), the first by an African American woman to ever be filmed, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, according to Achievement.org.
Her achievements are numerous, and she continues to inspire people through her work and lectures. The latest book by Angelou is titled “Letter to My Daughter,” published in September 2008.