Who was Maya Angelou and what is her poem Still I Rise?
MAYA Angelou used her tough upbringing in 1930s America to win literary acclaim and speak out for the rights of black people and women.
The celebrated poet and writer was friends with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and was admired by Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama. Here's what you need to know.
Who was Maya Angelou?
Maya was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928.
As a child she was mute for five years after the trauma of being raped by her mother's boyfriend, who was then murdered by her uncles.
She later said: "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name."
As a young adult she worked as a prostitute and a cabaret dancer and singer, using her married name Angelou and her brother's childhood nickname for her, Maya.
Later she moved with her young son to Africa, reporting on decolonialisation in Egypt and Ghana.
As a civil rights activist in the 1960s she worked closely with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, who were both assassinated during as turbulent period in American history.
In 1969 Angelou became an international star after publishing her best-selling autobiographical novel, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.
It tells of her troubled life up to the age of 17 when her son was born.
Six more memoirs followed along with acclaimed poetry collections, essays and screenplays.
Her works explore the issues of race, identity, family and travel.
She also lectured on civil rights into her eighties and became a respected voice for black people and women.
In 1993 she recited her poem On The Pulse Of Morning at Bill Clinton's inauguration as US President.
Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Barack and Michelle Obama led tributes after she died aged 86 in 2014.
What is Still I Rise by Maya Angelou?
One of Angelou's most celebrated poems is Still I Rise, published in her 1978 collection And Still I Rise.
The defiant and inspirational work remains popular today and was widely repeated after her death.
In April 2018, her 90th birthday was celebrated in a Google Doodle and a video of Still I Rise, featuring her own voice and stars including Oprah Winfrey and Alicia Keys.
In July 2018, students at the University of Manchester replaced a mural of Rudyard Kipling’s If poem with the words of Will I Rise.
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What are the words of 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.
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