Articles and Stories

June 24, 2014

Maya Angelou (Marguerite Johnson), 1928 – 2014

On May 28th the once caged bird flew off to heaven, no longer singing here on Earth.

She left much inspiration behind, inspiration of courage, eloquence, strength and endurance. She travelled so far, from Missouri to Ghana via Europe and Cairo, she saw mountains move for black women in the Unites States of America and she reached millions by the means of her words and works.

Moving to the United States in 1998, I had never heard about Maya Angelou.  Only her main autobiographical book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” had been translated into German. And even if I had read the book back in my European life, I would have not truly understood it. It takes being here to understand what the South and the country was before desegregation, as much as one can understand by looking at old images and reading accounts. It takes seeing the plantations where the cotton fields used to be with its slave quarters, the mansions of the wealthy owners just in close proximity.

Experiences can be transmitted with words, and Maya Angelou was a master at it, and they can then be translated for foreign audiences. The words acquire a differently nuanced meaning to each person depending on the latter’s life story; additionally they take on a life of their own when read out loud.

Whether it’s just the reciting of a poem or the account of a whole story, the speaker adds a large audiovisual component that goes far beyond the written text. And this component is unique to each individual speaker. One of my favorite readings by Maya Angelou herself is the recital of “And Still I Rise”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqo50LSZ0

Even if the poem was translated into Deutsch, or Ruski or Español, no one could read it quite like her, giving it the resilience, sassiness and yet warmth that the author does.

What a woman!  How often did she rise again, from her sexual abuse experience at age 8 which left her literally speechless for five years, to her experiencing motherhood as early as age 16, then becoming the first black street car driver in San Francisco, to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King on her birthday in 1968 which lead her not to celebrate her birthday for the following four years.

Particular honors were bestowed on her when she was asked to deliver her inaugural poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s swearing-in ceremony in 1993.  This honor was only awarded to one poet before, to Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy’s swearing-in (1961). She also has received more than 50 honorary degrees and was the long time Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.

Thank you Maya (Marguerite) for your legacy, you are missed on Earth — may you fly effortlessly and worry-free in heaven.