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sporadicarbitergardener · 1 year ago

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1928-2014

By Dr. Kelly A. Spring | 2017; Updated December 2021 by Mariana Brandman, NWHM Predoctoral Fellow in Women’s History, 2020-2022

Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar Maya Angelou was a world-famous author. She was best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.

On April 4, 1928, Marguerite Ann Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Due to her parents’ tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce, Angelou went to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas at an early age. Her older brother, Bailey, gave Angelou her nickname “Maya.”

Returning to her mother’s care briefly at the age of seven, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. He was later jailed and then killed when released from jail. Believing that her confession of the trauma had a hand in the man’s death, Angelou became mute for six years. During her mutism and into her teens, she again lived with her grandmother in Arkansas.

Angelou’s interest in the written word and the English language was evident from an early age. Throughout her childhood, she wrote essays, poetry, and kept a journal. When she returned to Arkansas, she took an interest in poetry and memorized works by Shakespeare and Poe.

Prior to the start of World War II, Angelou moved back in with her mother, who at this time was living in Oakland, California. She attended George Washington High School and took dance and drama courses at the California Labor School.

When war broke out, Angelou applied to join the Women’s Army Corps. However, her application was rejected because of her involvement in the California Labor School, which was said to have Communist ties. Determined to gain employment, despite being only 15 years old, she decided to apply for the position of a streetcar conductor. Many men had left their jobs to join the services, enabling women to fill them. However, Angelou was barred from applying at first because of her race. But she was undeterred. Every day for three weeks, she requested a job application, but was denied. Finally, the company relented and handed her an application. Because she was under the legal working age, she wrote that she was 19. She was accepted for the position and became the first African American woman to work as a streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Angelou was employed for a semester but then decided to return to school. She graduated from Mission High School in the summer of 1944 and soon after gave birth to her only child, Clyde Bailey (Guy) Johnson.

After graduation, Angelou undertook a series of odd jobs to support herself and her son. In 1949, she married Tosh Angelos, an electrician in the US Navy. She adopted a form of his surname and kept it throughout her life, though the marriage ended in divorce in 1952.

Angelou was also noted for her talents as a singer and dancer, particularly in the calypso and cabaret styles. In the 1950s, she performed professionally in the US, Europe, and northern Africa, and sold albums of her recordings.

In 1950, African American writers in New York City formed the Harlem Writers Guild to nurture and support the publication of Black authors. Angelou joined the Guild in 1959. She also became active in the Civil Rights Movement and served as the northern coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a prominent African American advocacy organization

In 1969, Angelou published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography of her early life. Her tale of personal strength amid childhood trauma and racism resonated with readers and was nominated for the National Book Award. Many schools sought to ban the book for its frank depiction of sexual abuse, but it is credited with helping other abuse survivors tell their stories. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has been translated into numerous languages and has sold over a million copies worldwide. Angelou eventually published six more autobiographies, culminating in 2013’s Mom & Me & Mom.

She wrote numerous poetry volumes, such as the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Just Give me a Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971), as well as several essay collections. She also recorded spoken albums of her poetry, including “On the Pulse of the Morning,” for which she won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album. The poem was originally written for and delivered at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. She also won a Grammy in 1995, and again in 2002, for her spoken albums of poetry.

Angelou carried out a wide variety of activities on stage and screen as a writer, actor, director, and producer. In 1972, she became the first African American woman to have her screen play turned into a film with the production of Georgia, Georgia. Angelou earned a Tony nomination in 1973 for her supporting role in Jerome Kitty’s play Look Away, and portrayed Kunta Kinte’s grandmother in the television miniseries Roots in 1977.

She was recognized by many organizations both nationally and internationally for her contributions to literature. In 1981, Wake Forest University offered Angelou the Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. President Clinton awarded Angelou the National Medal of Arts in 2000. In 2012, she was a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Wake Forest University Writers Hall of Fame. The following year, she received the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for outstanding service to the American literary community. Angelou also gave many commencement speeches and was awarded more than 30 honorary degrees in her lifetime.

Angelou died on May 28, 2014. Several memorials were held in her honor, including ones at Wake Forest University and Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. To honor her legacy, the US Postal Service issued a stamp with her likeness on it in 2015. (The US Postal Service mistakenly included a quote on the stamp that has long been associated with Angelou but was actually first written by Joan Walsh Anglund.)

In 2010, President Barack Obama awarded Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. It was a fitting recognition for Angelou’s remarkable and inspiring career in the arts.

This woman was a woman of rape, abuse , and even a victim of racism. She stayed writing in her life as life went on and she did not ask other people to suffer either was well she was a woman of many gift. A big wake up for womens rights and also a good reflection on what is wrong with today's society. People use religion, marriage, laws and even age to determine what is and isn't rape and that is the sick culture all women have to endure. It is never a woman's fault. It happened to me recently and now I am diving back into my music arts. Even research as well . Getting different domains for different topics as well while putting my story out there . It is scary to put it out there because there are so many different things that make writing scary/

#today i learned #til #inventions #biochemistry #women in stem #electricity #mathematics #ocean #environment #sea

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historyprofiles · 10 months ago

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Maya Angelou

Mary Angelou was born in Missouri and would go on to become a famous Poet and activist.

Mary, most arguably famous work, is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This was released in 1969, and dealt with her early life in Arkansas. The book talked about her experiences with racism and It talks about about her tragic past, where she experienced a sexual assault at the hands of her mothers brothers. This man would be murdered by her uncles, and Angelou felt responsible so stopped talking out of trauma. Her poetry also became famous, as her poetry often been lauded for its depictions of 'black beauty'

Many criticised her autobiography but it should be noted that Mary purposely wrote her book out of the standard autobiography style, in a attempt to subvert and make her impact on the genre.

In 1959 - Joined the recently formed 'Harlem Writers Guild' in New York.

In 1981 - Mary ,who was often known as “Dr. Angelou” despite having no higher level education, became a professor of American studies at

Wake Forest University

North Carolina

Wake Forest University

In 2013 - after her death, she received a Literarian award for her contributions for the literary community.

Sources -

Poetry Foundation

Biography.com

Wikipedia

WomenHistory.org

Britannica

#Mary Angelou #black history #historyblr

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sharonrb · 2 years ago

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Maya Angelou

1928-2014

By Dr. Kelly A. Spring | 2017; Updated December 2021 by Mariana Brandman, NWHM Predoctoral Fellow in Women’s History, 2020-2022

Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar Maya Angelou was a world-famous author. She was best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.

In 2011, President Barack Obama awarded Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. It was a fitting recognition for Angelou’s remarkable and inspiring career in the arts.

#maya angelou

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lensandpenpress · 3 years ago

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LOVER'S LEAP LEGENDS Garners Praise and Awards

LOVER’S LEAP LEGENDS Garners Praise and Awards

Lens & Pen Press is having a half price sale on all inventory. All titles now available on our website at www.dammingtheosage.com for half the original price, postage paid.

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#Benjamin Franklin Awards #Gadsden #Independent Publishers Book Awards #Lens & Pen Press #Lover&039;s Leap Legends #Missouri Writers Guild #Noccalula #Rock City Tennessee

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blackkudos · 5 years ago

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Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

She became a poet and writer after a series of occupations as a young adult, including fry cook, sex worker, nightclub dancer and performer, cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made around 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993) at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.

With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson for black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of black culture. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some U.S. libraries. Angelou's most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes such as racism, identity, family and travel.

Early life

Marguerite Annie Johnson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, the second child of Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer. Angelou's older brother, Bailey Jr., nicknamed Marguerite "Maya", derived from "My" or "Mya Sister". When Angelou was three and her brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage" ended, and their father sent them to Stamps, Arkansas, alone by train, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. In "an astonishing exception" to the harsh economics of African Americans of the time, Angelou's grandmother prospered financially during the Great Depression and World War II because the general store she owned sold needed basic commodities and because "she made wise and honest investments".

Four years later, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning" and returned them to their mother's care in St. Louis. At the age of eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, a man named Freeman. She told her brother, who told the rest of their family. Freeman was found guilty but was jailed for only one day. Four days after his release, he was murdered, probably by Angelou's uncles. Angelou became mute for almost five years, believing, as she stated, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone." According to Marcia Ann Gillespie and her colleagues, who wrote a biography about Angelou, it was during this period of silence when Angelou developed her extraordinary memory, her love for books and literature, and her ability to listen and observe the world around her.

Shortly after Freeman's murder, Angelou and her brother were sent back to their grandmother. Angelou credits a teacher and friend of her family, Mrs. Bertha Flowers, with helping her speak again. Flowers introduced her to authors such as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Douglas Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, authors who would affect her life and career, as well as black female artists like Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset.

When Angelou was 14, she and her brother moved in with their mother once again, who had since moved to Oakland, California. During World War II, Angelou attended the California Labor School. At the age of 16, she became the first black female cable car conductor in San Francisco. She wanted the job badly, admiring the uniforms of the operators—so much so that her mother referred to it as her "dream job." Her mother encouraged her to pursue the position, but warned her that she would need to arrive early and work harder than others. In 2014, Angelou received a lifetime achievement award from the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials as part of a session billed “Women Who Move the Nation.”

Three weeks after completing school, at the age of 17, she gave birth to her son, Clyde (who later changed his name to Guy Johnson).

Career

Adulthood and early career: 1951–61

In 1951, Angelou married Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician, former sailor, and aspiring musician, despite the condemnation of interracial relationships at the time and the disapproval of her mother. She took modern dance classes during this time, and met dancers and choreographers Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford. Ailey and Angelou formed a dance team, calling themselves "Al and Rita", and performed modern dance at fraternal black organizations throughout San Francisco but never became successful. Angelou, her new husband, and her son moved to New York City so she could study African dance with Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus, but they returned to San Francisco a year later.

After Angelou's marriage ended in 1954, she danced professionally in clubs around San Francisco, including the nightclub the Purple Onion, where she sang and danced to calypso music. Up to that point she went by the name of "Marguerite Johnson", or "Rita", but at the strong suggestion of her managers and supporters at the Purple Onion, she changed her professional name to "Maya Angelou" (her nickname and former married surname). It was a "distinctive name" that set her apart and captured the feel of her calypso dance performances. During 1954 and 1955, Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. She began her practice of learning the language of every country she visited, and in a few years she gained proficiency in several languages. In 1957, riding on the popularity of calypso, Angelou recorded her first album, Miss Calypso, which was reissued as a CD in 1996. She appeared in an off-Broadway review that inspired the 1957 film Calypso Heat Wave, in which Angelou sang and performed her own compositions.

Angelou met novelist John Oliver Killens in 1959 and, at his urging, moved to New York to concentrate on her writing career. She joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she met several major African-American authors, including John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Guy, Paule Marshall, and Julian Mayfield, and was published for the first time. In 1960, after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and hearing him speak, she and Killens organized "the legendary" Cabaret for Freedom to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and she was named SCLC's Northern Coordinator. According to scholar Lyman B. Hagen, her contributions to civil rights as a fundraiser and SCLC organizer were successful and "eminently effective". Angelou also began her pro-Castro and anti-apartheid activism during this time.

Africa to Caged Bird: 1961–69

In 1961, Angelou performed in Jean Genet's play The Blacks, along with Abbey Lincoln, Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, Louis Gossett, Godfrey Cambridge, and Cicely Tyson. Also in 1961, she met South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make; they never officially married. She and her son Guy moved with Make to Cairo, where Angelou worked as an associate editor at the weekly English-language newspaper The Arab Observer. In 1962, her relationship with Make ended, and she and Guy moved to Accra, Ghana so he could attend college, but he was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Angelou remained in Accra for his recovery and ended up staying there until 1965. She became an administrator at the University of Ghana, and was active in the African-American expatriate community. She was a feature editor for The African Review, a freelance writer for the Ghanaian Times, wrote and broadcast for Radio Ghana, and worked and performed for Ghana's National Theatre. She performed in a revival of The Blacks in Geneva and Berlin.

In Accra, she became close friends with Malcolm X during his visit in the early 1960s. Angelou returned to the U.S. in 1965 to help him build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity; he was assassinated shortly afterward. Devastated and adrift, she joined her brother in Hawaii, where she resumed her singing career. She moved back to Los Angeles to focus on her writing career. Working as a market researcher in Watts, Angelou witnessed the riots in the summer of 1965. She acted in and wrote plays, and returned to New York in 1967. She met her lifelong friend Rosa Guy and renewed her friendship with James Baldwin, whom she had met in Paris in the 1950s and called "my brother", during this time. Her friend Jerry Purcell provided Angelou with a stipend to support her writing.

In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. asked Angelou to organize a march. She agreed, but "postpones again", and in what Gillespie calls "a macabre twist of fate", he was assassinated on her 40th birthday (April 4). Devastated again, she was encouraged out of her depression by her friend James Baldwin. As Gillespie states, "If 1968 was a year of great pain, loss, and sadness, it was also the year when America first witnessed the breadth and depth of Maya Angelou's spirit and creative genius". Despite having almost no experience, she wrote, produced, and narrated Blacks, Blues, Black!, a ten-part series of documentaries about the connection between blues music and black Americans' African heritage, and what Angelou called the "Africanisms still current in the U.S." for National Educational Television, the precursor of PBS. Also in 1968, inspired at a dinner party she attended with Baldwin, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and his wife Judy, and challenged by Random House editor Robert Loomis, she wrote her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, published in 1969. This brought her international recognition and acclaim.

Later career

Released in 1972, Angelou's Georgia, Georgia, produced by a Swedish film company and filmed in Sweden, was the first screenplay written by a black woman. She also wrote the film's soundtrack, despite having very little additional input in the filming of the movie. Angelou married Paul du Feu, a Welsh carpenter and ex-husband of writer Germaine Greer, in San Francisco in 1973. Over the next ten years, as Gillespie has stated, "She [Angelou] had accomplished more than many artists hope to achieve in a lifetime." Angelou worked as a composer, writing for singer Roberta Flack, and composing movie scores. She wrote articles, short stories, TV scripts, documentaries, autobiographies, and poetry. She produced plays and was named visiting professor at several colleges and universities. She was "a reluctant actor", and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for her role in Look Away. As a theater director, in 1988 she undertook a revival of Errol John's play Moon on a Rainbow Shawl at the Almeida Theatre in London.

In 1977, Angelou appeared in a supporting role in the television mini-series Roots. She was given a multitude of awards during this period, including over thirty honorary degrees from colleges and universities from all over the world. In the late 1970s, Angelou met Oprah Winfrey when Winfrey was a TV anchor in Baltimore, Maryland; Angelou would later become Winfrey's close friend and mentor. In 1981, Angelou and du Feu divorced.

She returned to the southern United States in 1981 because she felt she had to come to terms with her past there and, despite having no bachelor's degree, accepted the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she was one of a few full-time African-American professors. From that point on, she considered herself "a teacher who writes". Angelou taught a variety of subjects that reflected her interests, including philosophy, ethics, theology, science, theater, and writing. The Winston-Salem Journal reported that even though she made many friends on campus, "she never quite lived down all of the criticism from people who thought she was more of a celebrity than an intellect...[and] an overpaid figurehead". The last course she taught at Wake Forest was in 2011, but she was planning to teach another course in late 2014. Her final speaking engagement at the university was in late 2013. Beginning in the 1990s, Angelou actively participated in the lecture circuit in a customized tour bus, something she continued into her eighties.

In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. Her recitation resulted in more fame and recognition for her previous works, and broadened her appeal "across racial, economic, and educational boundaries". The recording of the poem won a Grammy Award. In June 1995, she delivered what Richard Long called her "second 'public' poem", titled "A Brave and Startling Truth", which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

Angelou achieved her goal of directing a feature film in 1996, Down in the Delta, which featured actors such as Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes. Also in 1996, she collaborated with R&B artists Ashford & Simpson on seven of the eleven tracks of their album Been Found. The album was responsible for three of Angelou's only Billboard chart appearances. In 2000, she created a successful collection of products for Hallmark, including greeting cards and decorative household items. She responded to critics who charged her with being too commercial by stating that "the enterprise was perfectly in keeping with her role as 'the people's poet'". More than thirty years after Angelou began writing her life story, she completed her sixth autobiography A Song Flung Up to Heaven, in 2002.

Angelou campaigned for the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential primaries, giving her public support to Hillary Clinton. In the run-up to the January Democratic primary in South Carolina, the Clinton campaign ran ads featuring Angelou's endorsement. The ads were part of the campaign's efforts to rally support in the Black community; but Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary, finishing 29 points ahead of Clinton and taking 80% of the Black vote. When Clinton's campaign ended, Angelou put her support behind Obama, who went on to win the presidential election and became the first African-American president of the United States. After Obama's inauguration, she stated, "We are growing up beyond the idiocies of racism and sexism."

In late 2010, Angelou donated her personal papers and career memorabilia to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. They consisted of more than 340 boxes of documents that featured her handwritten notes on yellow legal pads for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a 1982 telegram from Coretta Scott King, fan mail, and personal and professional correspondence from colleagues such as her editor Robert Loomis. In 2011, Angelou served as a consultant for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. She spoke out in opposition to a paraphrase of a quotation by King that appeared on the memorial, saying, "The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit", and demanded that it be changed. Eventually, the paraphrase was removed.

In 2013, at the age of 85, Angelou published the seventh volume of autobiography in her series, titled Mom & Me & Mom, which focuses on her relationship with her mother.

Personal life

Evidence suggests that Angelou was partially descended from the Mende people of West Africa. In 2008, a DNA test revealed that among all of her African ancestors, 45 percent were from the Congo-Angola region and 55 percent were from West Africa. A 2008 PBS documentary found that Angelou's maternal great-grandmother Mary Lee, who had been emancipated after the Civil War, became pregnant by her white former owner, John Savin. Savin forced Lee to sign a false statement accusing another man of being the father of her child. After Savin was indicted for forcing Lee to commit perjury, and despite the discovery that Savin was the father, a jury found him not guilty. Lee was sent to the Clinton County poorhouse in Missouri with her daughter, Marguerite Baxter, who became Angelou's grandmother. Angelou described Lee as "that poor little Black girl, physically and mentally bruised".

The details of Angelou's life described in her seven autobiographies and in numerous interviews, speeches, and articles tended to be inconsistent. Critic Mary Jane Lupton has explained that when Angelou spoke about her life, she did so eloquently but informally and "with no time chart in front of her". For example, she was married at least twice, but never clarified the number of times she had been married, "for fear of sounding frivolous"; according to her autobiographies and to Gillespie, she married Tosh Angelos in 1951 and Paul du Feu in 1974, and began her relationship with Vusumzi Make in 1961, but never formally married him. Angelou held many jobs, including some in the sex trade, working as a prostitute and madame for lesbians, as she described in her second autobiography, Gather Together in My Name. In a 1995 interview, Angelou said,

"I wrote about my experiences because I thought too many people tell young folks, 'I never did anything wrong. Who, Moi? – never I. I have no skeletons in my closet. In fact, I have no closet.' They lie like that and then young people find themselves in situations and they think, 'Damn I must be a pretty bad guy. My mom or dad never did anything wrong.' They can't forgive themselves and go on with their lives."

Angelou had one son, Guy, whose birth she described in her first autobiography; one grandson, two great-grandchildren, and, according to Gillespie, a large group of friends and extended family. Angelou's mother Vivian Baxter died in 1991 and her brother Bailey Johnson Jr., died in 2000 after a series of strokes; both were important figures in her life and her books. In 1981, the mother of her grandson disappeared with him; finding him took four years.

In 2009, the gossip website TMZ erroneously reported that Angelou had been hospitalized in Los Angeles when she was alive and well in St. Louis, which resulted in rumors of her death and, according to Angelou, concern among her friends and family worldwide. In 2013, Angelou told her friend Oprah Winfrey that she had studied courses offered by the Unity Church, which were spiritually significant to her. She did not earn a university degree, but according to Gillespie it was Angelou's preference to be called "Dr. Angelou" by people outside of her family and close friends. She owned two homes in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a "lordly brownstone" in Harlem, which was purchased in 2004 and was full of her "growing library" of books she collected throughout her life, artwork collected over the span of many decades, and well-stocked kitchens. Guardian writer Gary Younge reported that in Angelou's Harlem home were several African wall hangings and her collection of paintings, including ones of several jazz trumpeters, a watercolor of Rosa Parks, and a Faith Ringgold work titled "Maya's Quilt Of Life".

According to Gillespie, she hosted several celebrations per year at her main residence in Winston-Salem; "her skill in the kitchen is the stuff of legend—from haute cuisine to down-home comfort food". The Winston-Salem Journal stated: "Securing an invitation to one of Angelou's Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas tree decorating parties or birthday parties was among the most coveted invitations in town." The New York Times, describing Angelou's residence history in New York City, stated that she regularly hosted elaborate New Year's Day parties. She combined her cooking and writing skills in her 2004 book Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, which featured 73 recipes, many of which she learned from her grandmother and mother, accompanied by 28 vignettes. She followed up in 2010 with her second cookbook, Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart, which focused on weight loss and portion control.

Beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou used the same "writing ritual" for many years. She would wake early in the morning and check into a hotel room, where the staff was instructed to remove any pictures from the walls. She would write on legal pads while lying on the bed, with only a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards to play solitaire, Roget's Thesaurus, and the Bible, and would leave by the early afternoon. She would average 10–12 pages of written material a day, which she edited down to three or four pages in the evening. She went through this process to "enchant" herself, and as she said in a 1989 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, "relive the agony, the anguish, the Sturm und Drang". She placed herself back in the time she wrote about, even traumatic experiences such as her rape in Caged Bird, in order to "tell the human truth" about her life. Angelou stated that she played cards in order to get to that place of enchantment and in order to access her memories more effectively. She said, "It may take an hour to get into it, but once I'm in it—ha! It's so delicious!" She did not find the process cathartic; rather, she found relief in "telling the truth".

Death

Angelou died on the morning of May 28, 2014 at the age 86. She was found by her nurse. Although Angelou had reportedly been in poor health and had canceled recent scheduled appearances, she was working on another book, an autobiography about her experiences with national and world leaders. During her memorial service at Wake Forest University, her son Guy Johnson stated that despite being in constant pain due to her dancing career and respiratory failure, she wrote four books during the last ten years of her life. He said, "She left this mortal plane with no loss of acuity and no loss in comprehension."

Tributes to Angelou and condolences were paid by artists, entertainers, and world leaders, including Obama, whose sister was named after Angelou, and Bill Clinton. Harold Augenbraum, from the National Book Foundation, said that Angelou's "legacy is one that all writers and readers across the world can admire and aspire to." The week after Angelou's death, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings rose to number 1 on Amazon.com's bestseller list.

On May 29, 2014, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, of which Angelou was a member for 30 years, held a public memorial service to honor her. On June 7, a private memorial service was held at Wait Chapel on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. The memorial was shown live on local stations in the Winston-Salem/Triad area and streamed live on the university web site with speeches from her son, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton. On June 15, a memorial was held at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, where Angelou was a member for many years. Rev. Cecil Williams, Mayor Ed Lee, and former mayor Willie Brown spoke.

Works

Angelou wrote a total of seven autobiographies. According to scholar Mary Jane Lupton, Angelou's third autobiography Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas marked the first time a well-known African-American autobiographer had written a third volume about her life. Her books "stretch over time and place", from Arkansas to Africa and back to the U.S., and take place from the beginnings of World War II to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. In her fifth autobiography “All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes” (1986) Angelou tells about her return to Ghana searching for the past of her tribe. She published her seventh autobiography Mom & Me & Mom in 2013, at the age of 85. Critics have tended to judge Angelou's subsequent autobiographies "in light of the first", with Caged Bird receiving the highest praise. Angelou wrote five collections of essays, which writer Hilton Als called her "wisdom books" and "homilies strung together with autobiographical texts". Angelou used the same editor throughout her writing career, Robert Loomis, an executive editor at Random House; he retired in 2011 and has been called "one of publishing's hall of fame editors." Angelou said regarding Loomis: "We have a relationship that's kind of famous among publishers."

Angelou's long and extensive career also included poetry, plays, screenplays for television and film, directing, acting, and public speaking. She was a prolific writer of poetry; her volume Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she was chosen by US President Bill Clinton to recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" during his inauguration in 1993.

Angelou's successful acting career included roles in numerous plays, films, and television programs, including her appearance in the television mini-series Roots in 1977. Her screenplay, Georgia, Georgia (1972), was the first original script by a black woman to be produced, and she was the first African-American woman to direct a major motion picture, Down in the Delta, in 1998.

Chronology of autobiographies

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969): Up to 1944 (age 17)

Gather Together in My Name (1974): 1944–48

Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976): 1949–55

The Heart of a Woman (1981): 1957–62

All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986): 1962–65

A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002): 1965–68

Mom & Me & Mom (2013): overview

#04/04 #05/28

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bossybroads · 6 years ago

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Black History Month: Maya Angelou. [warning for mention of child rape] Maya Angelou, original name Marguerite Annie Johnson, (born April 4, 1928, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.—died May 28, 2014, Winston-Salem, North Carolina), poet, memoirist, and actress whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression. Although born in St. Louis, Angelou spent much of her childhood in the care of her paternal grandmother in rural Stamps, Arkansas. When she was not yet eight years old, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend and told of it, after which he was murdered; the traumatic sequence of events left her almost completely mute for several years. This early life is the focus of her first autobiographical work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969; TV movie 1979), which gained critical acclaim and a National Book Award nomination. Subsequent volumes of autobiography include 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 (1986), A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002), and Mom & Me & Mom (2013). In 1940 Angelou moved with her mother to San Francisco and worked intermittently as a cocktail waitress, a sex worker and madam, a cook, and a dancer. It was as a dancer that she assumed her professional name. Moving to New York City in the late 1950s, Angelou found encouragement for her literary talents at the Harlem Writers’ Guild. About the same time, Angelou landed a featured role in a State Department-sponsored production of George Gershwin’s folk opera Porgy and Bess; with this troupe she toured 22 countries in Europe and Africa. She also studied dance with Martha Graham and Pearl Primus. In 1961 she performed in Jean Genet’s play The Blacks. That same year she was persuaded by a South African dissident to whom she was briefly married to move to Cairo, where she worked for the Arab Observer. She later moved to Ghana and worked on The African Review. Angelou returned to California in 1966 and wrote Black, Blues, Black (aired 1968), a 10-part television series about the role of African culture in American life. As the writer of the movie drama Georgia, Georgia (1972), she became one of the first African American women to have a screenplay produced as a feature film. She also acted in such movies as Poetic Justice (1993) and How to Make an American Quilt (1995) and appeared in several television productions, including the miniseries Roots (1977). Angelou received a Tony Award nomination for her performance in Look Away (1973), despite the fact that the play closed on Broadway after only one performance. In 1998 she made her directorial debut with Down in the Delta (1998). The documentary Maya Angelou and Still I Rise (2016) depicts her life through interviews with Angelou and her intimates and admirers. In 1981 Angelou, who was often referred to as “Dr. Angelou” despite her lack of a college education, became a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She celebrated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in the poem “A Brave and Startling Truth” (1995) and elegized Nelson Mandela in the poem “His Day Is Done” (2013), which was commissioned by the U.S. State Department and released in the wake of the South African leader’s death. In 2011 Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bio compiled from: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maya-Angelou

#black history month #black history #black authors #black poets #maya angelou #poetry #literature

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dreaminoutloudent · 3 years ago

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Just Who Is Arthur “Poetry” Payne III?

Arthur E. Payne III aka Arthur “Poetry” Payne III

PROFESSION: Singer/songwriter, publisher, CEO: Dreamin’ Out Loud Entertainment Recording Company, Publisher, Video Producer, Internet Radio Station Owner, Talk Radio Show Owner, CEO of Dreamin’ Out Loud, LLC, a Christian Entertainment Company. Publishes the entertainment magazine “MACKIE” and daily online newspaper “And Now Ya Know.”

https://dreaminoutloudent.com/

EDUCATION: Rockhurst College-Kansas City, Missouri Park College-Parkville, Missouri Charlie Parker Music Academy- Kansas City, Missouri University Of Missouri- Kansas City, Missouri The American Dance Academy- Kansas City, Missouri The Backstage Workshop- Kansas City, Missouri Penn Valley Community College- Kansas City, Missouri

MEMBERSHIPS ( past & current* ): The Knights of Columbus Fr. Hagar Council # 7064* Broadcast Music Inc. Publisher & Writer Affiliation since 1977* SoundExchange affiliation since 2011* Independent Filmmakers Coalition of Kansas City Nashville Songwriters Association International The Songwriters Guild Of America

LEGAL COUNSEL ( past & current* ): Mr. Kendall A. Minter Attorney At Law* Linda S. Mensch Attorney At Law Lloyd & Lloyd Attorneys At Law Johnnie Cochran & Associates

Consultants: Mr. Derek Sivers, Mr. Chuck Chapman & Ms. Wendy Day - Former Publicist: Ms. Phyllis Caddell - PCPR Communications

EXPERIENCE & ACHIEVEMENTS: Both Dreamin’ Out Loud Entertainment and its’ flagship artist Katelyn McCarter were winners in the 2013 IMEA Music Awards ( International Music and Entertainment Awards). Dreamin’ Out Loud won for indie Record Label of the Year while Katelyn won for both indie Entertainer of the Year and indie Christian Female Artist of the Year. Operated Christian internet radio station KBAT, Gospel station TEAM Gospel, talk radio station WCFR and KJDH, Once Upon a Time Radio from January 2012 to October 2016.

Managed Kansas City based artist/daughter “Raina” resulting in major label interest from Sindrome Records in the mid 90’s. Also co-wrote, co-produced, co-directed, co-edited and was set designer for the music video “I’ve Had Enuf“ featuring “Raina” that was shown regionally on American Cablevision’s “Music Showcase” television program.

Managed Kansas City based trio “IV Real” resulting in major label interest from Mr. Kevin Evans of Blacktie Entertainment/Capital Records in the early 90’s, and was also responsible for this group signing with start up booking agency Exact Image and becoming an opening act for national touring recording acts. “IV Real” was able to play venues such as The Music Hall and Kemper Arena in Kansas City, MO and shared the stage with many acts including Bloodstone, Lorenzo, Lo-Key? and then unknown comedian, Eddie Griffin. Co-wrote, co-produced, co-directed, co-edited and was set designer for the music video “Always” featuring “IV Real” that was shown independently across the nation on cable television, locally on cable channel 30’s video show “Music Showcase” for a solid year and nationally on BET’s “Video Soul” with Donnie Simpson. This video was also an Open Division Award Winner at the 1994 Kan Film Festival.

Co-Managed former Marvin Yancy/Chuck Jackson protégé, James Cleveland Choir vocalist and lead vocalist of the Interscope/Warner Bros. recording act “Truth Inc”, Derald Conway in his comeback attempt resulting in major label interest from Blacktie Entertainment/Capital Records in the late 90’s. Derald was also the singing voice for Robert Townsend in the film “The Five Heartbeats”.

Former Business Manager, Producer, Composer, Lead Vocalist and Musician (percussions) for five member R&B group “Poetry In Motion” throughout the late 70’s and early 80’s. This group would be offered the opportunity to tour and open for national recording act “The Masquaraders” in support of their 1975 hit single “(Call Me) The Travelin’ Man “. Offer was declined as “Poetry In Motion” members were still in college.

Former Business Manager, Co-Lead Vocalist, Composer, and Co-Producer for R & B trio “3PM” resulting in a 1988 major label singles deal offer for the original composition, “Without You” from Motown record executive Russ Regan as well as interest from Total Experience Records. Was also responsible for securing and becoming one of only five acts handled by professional management team from Detroit, Michigan, attorneys Leona & Leonia Lloyd ( Double L Management ), who were the team behind the 80’s groups “Ready For The World“ and “Kiara“. Was also the only act not from the Michigan area that was managed by Double L Management at that time.

Helped develop & nurture musical career of Kansas City native and former Flyte-tyme Productions’ background vocalist & co-lead vocalist of the Ruffhouse/Sony Records 90’s group “Four Sure“, Joey Elias. Helped develop careers of KC natives & current Los Angeles based session musician/writer Mark Lomack and former record executive Eric Hayslett of Los Angeles independent rap label Cream Factory Records. Also, indirectly encouraged the local cover band “Grand Jury” to begin writing original music. This band would later become the Perspective Record’s act “Lo-Key?” in the early ‘90s. Also inspired many local KC groups to begin writing original material and to strive for national attention.

Was, in summer of 1973, presented with the opportunity to meet with and discuss possible staff songwriting opportunities for Quincy Jones and his newly created Los Angeles based label Qwest Records. Offer was declined to begin college studies. Also in the same summer of 1973, wrote a television commercial jingle, “Dog’s Need Protection at Night”, for a company that was attempting to produce and manufacture reflective night collars for dogs. The company failed to get established.

Was presented in 1994 with the opportunity to write with Isaac Hayes on the musical score of the independent film “Ninth Street” by writer/owner Kevin Willmott. Offer was declined because of Memphis, TN five month relocation requirement. Kevin would later win an Oscar along with Spike Lee for the movie BlacKkKlansman. Had small but credited acting part in the national direct to video film release “Ninth Street“, starring Isaac Hayes & Martin Sheen.

Has been mentored and or advised over the years by Entertainment Lawyer Kendall Minter, former ABC Records President, Hal Yoergler, former Polydor / Motown Records executive, Russ Regan, Rapcoalition CEO, Wendy Day, CD Baby founder, Derek Sivers, Exact Image CEO & former booking agent, Mi-Ling Stone Poole and Kansas City recording studio owner, Chuck Chapman.

Owns and operates Poetry Kinda’ Music Publishing and A Drop A’Raina Music Publishing in association with ( B.M.I. )Broadcast Music Inc.

Former CEO of Dreamin’ Out Loud LLC., a Christian Entertainment Company and President of indie record label Dreamin’ Out Loud Entertainment from 2010 to 2016. Dreamin’ Out Loud Entertainment recorded one 11 song cd on its’ flagship artist Katelyn McCarter and released one single from that project and one single from its’ second artist Kristin Rader.

Has had many poems published in the “National Library of Poetry” book series, been offered several single song publishing deals and has bio listed in many national reference titles including “Who’s Who in the Midwest“, “Who’s Who in America“, “Who’s Who in the World” and “Billboard’s International Talent Directory“ among others.

Has had ten songs recorded and released by independent artists Sheila Alexander and R&B group Double Exposure.

Owns and operates KBAT Variety Internet Radio. KBAT plays a variety of songs from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s & early 2000’s. Writes in most genres including R&B, Pop, Blues, Country, Christian, Jazz, Gospel and Rock.

https://live365.com/station/KBAT-Variety-Internet-Radio-a29006 https://kbatradio.webs.com/

https://ceoinfo.webs.com/

Has written over 1500 songs.

As of 2021 Dreamin’ Out Loud Entertainment is a family owned indie multi-genre entertainment recording company focused on spreading a positive, up-lifting message through the creative arts through mp3 only releases. Our mission is to bring to the world positive, uplifting and professional materials of the highest quality. Our motto: “Makin it happen…One dream at a time” Dreamin’ Out Loud Entertainment is a division of Dreamin’ Out Loud, LLC

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angela-yuriko-smith · 4 years ago

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THREE WINS+ IN MISSOURI WRITERS GUILD AWARDS

From the Missouri Writers Guild’s 2021 President’s Writers Contest—So excited to be awarded a first place in Best Short Story with “Skin Dowdy” from Black Cranes (yes, the same Black Cranes that is a Shirley Jackson Awards finalist!) I was awarded a first place for my nonfiction interview “Potter Magic: Guiding Libraries in Pandemic Times” in Space and Time #137 Summer 2020 and a second place for…

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marierobert8168 · 4 years ago

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Game of Thrones Famed Peter Dinklage Is Hired For The Toxic Avenger Reboot

The Game of Thrones famed Peter Dinklage has been hired for the reboot of The Toxic Avenger.

The first movie in the franchise of The Toxic Avenger was released in 1984. Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz directed the black superhero comedy. The film was known for its gruesome violence, campy concepts, and bad taste. The Toxic Avenger grabbed the audience’s attention after the successful midnight movie engagement at the Bleecker Street Cinema in 1985. Since then, the movie has become a cult classic.

Later the franchise expanded and created a few sequels, video games, musical stage production, and children’s cartoons. After the public recognition of the first film, filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman created the sequel of the movie. He realized that he had shot too many sequences for one movie; hence he sat with the editing team and cut it into two sequels. The third sequel was an independent project titled Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV.

After almost 20 years, the production studio Legendary Entertainment announced that it would produce the movie’s reboot along with the original director of the franchise Herz and Kaufman. According to Deadline’s article, the actor Peter Dinklage will appear in the upcoming movie of the franchise The Toxic Avenger.

Peter Hayden Dinklage is an American producer and actor. The actor is known for his amazing performance in the role of Tyrion Lannister on the HBO TV series Game of Thrones. For the character, Dinklage has won a Golden Globe, four the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and a Screen Actors Guild Award in 2020.

The brilliant actor has dwarfism and stands 4 feet 5 inches. He got his breakthrough in the comedy-drama The Station Agent. Later he appeared in other projects, including Find Me Guilty, Penelope, Lassie, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and as Hervé Villechaize in the biopic film My Dinner with Hervé.

The reboot of the franchise will be written and directed by Macon Blair, known for his roles in the movies like Green Room and Blue Ruin. He started his directorial journey with the project I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore.

With the amazing team of writers, directors, and actors, the fans can expect that the reboot series will serve something hilarious and thriller to the table. The Toxic Avenger is not part of the Avenger universe and is not well known for any other franchise. However, there are a lot of superhero movies that have selected an independent path for themselves and tasted success down the road.

The first movie of The Toxic Avenger franchise received an approval rating of 70% based on 20 reviews with an average rating of 5.5/10. And on Metacritic, it got 42 scores out of 100. Fans have lots of hope with the reboot series as Blair is part of the project. It would be interesting to see if the award-winning director can do justice to the cult classic. The team has not shared any details regarding the plot and production schedule. However, it is reliving that the project is under process. Hopefully, soon the team and studio will announce the release date for The Toxic Avenger.

Source url:- https://williamsblogpoint.wordpress.com/2020/12/07/game-of-thrones-famed-peter-dinklage-is-hired-for-the-toxic-avenger-reboot/

Ava Williams is a Microsoft Office expert and has been working in the technical industry since 2002. As a technical expert, She has written technical blogs, manuals, white papers, and reviews for many websites webroot.com/safe

#Peter Dinklage

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shannon-jeanna · 7 years ago

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When I think about Aziz Ansari’s statement from last week, the thing I keep coming back to is that final paragraph break—the literal space—between his first two paragraphs and the third one. There’s this gap between his initial defense of his behavior with “Grace,” the pseudonym given to the anonymous woman in the story published by Babe, and his final expression of allegiance with all the women who have told their stories of harassment, assault, and rape over the past few months.

Or rather, it is the lack of space between these two things that says more than anything that was actually typed out.

“I continue to support the movement that is happening in our culture,” Ansari says at the end of his statement. “It is necessary and long overdue.” It comes just three sentences after he describes his encounter with Grace as being “by all indications…completely consensual.” There is no real transition between his description of the “sexual activity” during their date, which by Grace’s account was not completely consensual, and the larger context implied by that ending. He does not attempt to build a bridge for the reader or himself. There is no mention of assault, harassment, or abuse. We are simply meant to infer what the “movement” Ansari mentions is and why exactly it is “necessary and long overdue”—or what any of that has to do with him and Grace.

It’s not that the inference is hard to make, but the lack of effort given to actually describing what’s happening—the hesitancy to name structural oppression, let alone his role in maintaining it—while still claiming space as an ally to the “movement,” is as much a choice as the use of the word “completely” before consensual. And that tiny gap on the page, where so much could have been said, is the silent, inactive place where most men have chosen to remain when it comes to uncomfortable conversations about patriarchy.

Ansari is not alone in this, even if he was also among those men who remained quiet on stage at the Golden Globes while wearing a shiny #TimesUp pin. That silence was echoed at the Screen Actors Guild awards over the weekend: Alexander Skarsgård once again failed to mention domestic violence while accepting an award for playing a rapist and abuser in Big Little Lies, and Sam Rockwell, winning for his part as a racist cop in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, finished his speech with a vague show of support for “all of the incredible women in this room who are trying to make things better,” which he also said was “long overdue.”

These statements represent just how little space most straight cisgender men have ever been willing to devote to really talking about gender, sex, and power. Or how much thought we’ve ever given to investigating what consent really means, and how it involves us. When James Franco appeared on TV after the Golden Globes, not only did he not voluntarily bring up the allegations against him, but, like pretty much every male actor who has been on TV this month, he also didn’t take the chance to center women or the #metoo movement (started by Tarana Burke.)

When directly asked about the accusations, Franco only briefly acknowledged the importance of victims being able to speak before telling Stephen Colbert, “Look, in my life I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I have done.” Yet, Franco and the men who support him never take responsibility for the everyday ways in which they hold onto their power—pushing others away from the mic so that they can continue to speak.

The vagueness with which Ansari expresses his support in the midst of refuting a claim of sexual coercion is how most men choose to talk about the sexual violence that we have always known exists around us. It’s like the white people condemning Donald Trump for his “racist remarks” who will never venture into how they themselves help maintain white supremacy. We might write down the correct words, or include them in our art, but when the conversation comes to our front door, most straight cis men would rather defend our position than actually cede any space.

In that way, finding that gap in Ansari’s statement was like finding a mirror too, for all the times in my own life that I’ve been silent about the role I’ve played in perpetuating patriarchy. All the times I’ve become defensive about the power I’ve brought into my interactions with women. Not to mention the many times I didn’t challenge the misogyny around me. It is a glimpse, that pregnant pause, at the chasm that exists between the support of #TimesUp we might express publicly, and our actual willingness to give up our time.

Despite the brevity of Ansari’s statement, many have expressed disbelief that he had to go to the trouble at all. At The New York Times, Bari Weiss wrote that Grace’s story and the subsequent discussion about consent online “trivializes what #MeToo first stood for.” Meanwhile, Caitlin Flanagan at The Atlanticlaments the “humiliation” of Ansari and how a “hit squad of privileged young white women” apparently “destroyed a man who didn’t deserve it.”

But the actual consequences for Ansari will continue to be minimal at best. “We do not live in a society where published allegations of sexual assault alone ruin one’s career,” writer Danielle Butler explained in an essay for Very Smart Brothas. “If it’s any consolation for the Weisses and Flanagans of the world, they may simply look to the likes of R. Kelly and the current president of the United States for solace in how little such accusations hinder powerful men from thriving.” Or look at Gary Oldman, who picked up an Oscar nomination this week despite his abusive past. No, a discussion about consent will never derail this movement, but if anything does, it might be that thing that has always protected men: our refusal to engage, and this reflexive desire to accommodate.

Time is valuable, as so many victims have emphasized in their statements. Yet the men taking up most of the space, money, and screen time in our culture have failed to respond to the literal nature of the current call to action. We have again left women with the labor of transformation. Some have donated money, but most have scoffed at the idea that they could be doing more. All while others insist on keeping the standards for how we treat women as low as possible, because perhaps they too fear disturbing the universe.

It’s exactly how we’re meant to behave in a patriarchal society. The path of least resistance is the white line between paragraph two and three in Ansari’s statement. It is the path that might allow one to acknowledge the pain of others—to sometimes even say “this is long overdue”—but to never acknowledge the connection between that pain and your everyday life. It’s the place where you learn to think about your own power as a neutral thing, as a fact of the world, rather than something you are actively maintaining.

Uncomfortable words always tend to get stuck in our mouth. Speaking about privilege as a man, or the reality of sexual harassment in your community, means placing a mirror in front of yourself. It might even make you look weak. It’s easier to remain quiet and pass this onto others, which is precisely why white men like Matt Damon emphasize the “preponderance” of innocent men instead of acknowledging their part in this system. Yet, this urge to delineate between “good” and “bad” men is itself a product of patriarchy, and just creates another hierarchy of masculinity—another claim to space. After all, the only way to be worth anything in this system, to feel like a “real man,” is to put oneself above someone. To dominate.

But taking the time to name our responsibility is the bare minimum we can do to interrupt oppression. If queer Black trans women can speak publicly about the sexual violence they’ve faced, then straight cisgender men can certainly risk some embarrassment or shame to say a few lines about power. We have to accept that we will necessarily stumble, but also that every bit of our space in this world that we don’t use to dismantle patriarchy is being used to keep it in place.

#me too #balance ton porc #time's up #Aziz Ansari #men #me #post #shannon jeanna #bitch media #Imran Siddiquee

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jessica-marie-baumgartner · 4 years ago

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Well looky there

#writing #writer #writing awards #missouri writer's guild #missouri writer's guild awards #accolades #poetry #nonfiction #books #reading #success #author #writer's life #writers of tumblr

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sporadicarbitergardener · 1 year ago

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Maya Angellou

Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar Maya Angelou was a world-famous author. She was best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.

This goes to show you only get real honor after death, she was amazing and very inspiring, after reading her story gave me encouragement to always continue with mine no matter what anyone says

#womens voice #womens rights #womens history #art #writer #young writers #inspiration #love #peace #how she wrote

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