Good-bye Maya Angelou

[Linda Anderson]

"I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God from deliverance against chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them."

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Here is Ms. Angelou reciting her famous poem, "Still I Rise." The poem starts at 42 seconds with the lines;

"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."

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