Maya Angelou Sings Songs of Love
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Maya Angelou
Sings Songs
of Love
In an exclusive interview with Science of Mind, Dr. Angelou shares
insights into her spiritual life and the lessons that have enabled her to
overcome personal tragedies and societal barriers to create an elegant life
and inspire generations. Science of Mind proudly honors Dr. Maya
Angelou as our Spiritual Hero for 2013.
CLAUDIA ABBOTT
I
n 1969, the year when I Angeles, giving evidence of the
Know Why the Caged Bird molten lava of disease festering
Sings was first published, for centuries in the melting pot
the United States was of American life.
immersed in a cauldron of At the age of forty, Maya
resistance, racial tension, bigotry, Angelou did not intend to write
violence, and separation. The an autobiography. A poet and
Civil Rights Act of 1964 had playwright, she had worked
codified much-needed legislation for the civil rights movement
to end racial segregation, but and was involved with theater
the work was far from over. and television projects aimed
The assassinations of President at raising social awareness.
John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, But she balked at the idea of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and writing about her own life when
Senator Robert F. Kennedy were approached by Random House
fresh wounds in the nation’s editor Robert Loomis. After
psyche. Peaceful protests were several attempts to convince
met with violence across the her to share her incredible
South, and riots erupted in major story, Loomis commented, “You
urban centers like Watts in Los may be right not to attempt
Maya Angelou & Angela Davis
an autobiography, because it she felt imprisoned by walls
is nearly impossible to write of segregation and bigotry, but
autobiography as literature.” also graced by the richness of
Angelou had decided at an early the African-American traditions,
age that can’’t was not going community, spiritual life, and
to be a part of her vocabulary, love that supported her. The book
and she remembered her is the coming-of-age story of a
grandmother’s words, “Nothing young girl, Marguerite Johnson,
beats a trial but a failure.” She born April 4, 1928, who was
accepted the challenge, and the destined to achieve fame as Maya
first of the seven volumes of her Angelou—dancer, singer, actress,
autobiography was born. playwright, speaker, teacher, and
I Know Why the Caged Bird the master of two literary genres:
Sings immediately became a poetry and the autobiography.
best seller. A nation hungry for
understanding was captivated The caged bird sings… / of things
by Angelou’s exacting and vivid unknown / but longed for still—
description of life in the rural, “The Caged Bird,” from Shaker,
Depression-era South where Why Don’’t You Sing?
The story that launched her epic to the shy girl who missed the
autobiography began when the woman she called Momma, her
three-year-old girl was separated grandmother Annie. The Baxters
from her mother and ended were an influential family in
when she became a mother the black neighborhood. Their
herself at the age of seventeen. grandmother was a precinct
In 1931, with their marriage captain and wielded political
coming to a stormy end, her influence; the grandfather, an
parents decided to send their immigrant from Trinidad, taught
children, via train, from Long his children the importance
Beach, California, to Stamps, of knowing how to fight. The
Arkansas, to be raised by their result was that the Baxters were
paternal grandmother, Annie a tough lot. Vivian, Maya and
Henderson. With identification Bailey’s mother, was the eldest
and destination tags secured to child in the family. Her father
their tiny wrists, Maya and her was proud of her boyish, fearless
brother Bailey, age four, were personality, and she became a
cast off on the long journey model of violent power for her
alone, with no adult supervision younger brothers. You didn’t
or companionship. Although the mess with the Baxters.
early years in Stamps were filled When Maya was only
with feelings of abandonment, seven and a half, her mother’s
there was also love and boyfriend violated her and
nurturing. threatened to kill her beloved
Bailey if she told anyone. She
In my Missouri / I had known a recounted the trauma: “I stopped
mean man—“In My Missouri” speaking at the age of seven. I
from I Shall Not Be Moved stopped speaking because I had
been raped, and I told the name
When the children were seven of my rapist to my brother, who
and eight, they were taken by told the family. The man stayed
their father and deposited in in jail one day and one night,
St. Louis, Missouri, to live with and then he was released. A
their mother’s family. Life in few days later, the police came
Missouri was a state of misery to my maternal grandmother’s
for the young child, whose house and told my mother’s
brother had called her “My a mother that the man had been
Sister,” a name that evolved into found dead; it seemed that he
Maya. The home of the maternal had been kicked to death.” The
family, the Baxters, was alien children sensed that the uncles
were responsible for the man’s gonna be a teacher. Sister, you
death. “My seven-and-a-half- gonna teach all over this world.’
years’ logic told me that my voice I would sit there and think, this
killed a man, and so it was better poor ignorant woman, didn’t she
if I did not speak. So I didn’t know I would never speak?
speak. I spoke to my brother, “I have taught all over the
because, somehow, I knew world. I have taught at the
that his love for me and mine Hebema Theatre in Tel Aviv
for him prevented any curse and at the Rome Opera House;
from hurting either of us. But I worked in Egypt for two years
otherwise, my voice could just go as a journalist. I am a Lifetime
out the keyhole and kill people Reynolds Professor at Wake Forest
randomly. After a few months, University. I teach in a number
my mother’s people sent me and of languages and in a number of
my brother back to my paternal disciplines. So my grandmother
grandmother in Arkansas.” knew something, and I knew she
was a child of God.
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors “She said, ‘Sister, Momma’s
gave / I am the dream and the hope just gonna step out on the word
of the slave / I rise—“Still I Rise” of God.’ And I could picture this
from And Still I Rise six-foot-tall black lady standing
up in the heavens with nothing
In Stamps, it was her underneath her, with moons
grandmother’s love and faith and suns and stars swirling all
that enveloped Maya in a around her just standing there.
cocoon of security. She shared So I had that assurance, if I had it
her grandmother’s words and for myself or not.”
their impact: “My grandmother During those mute years,
would braid my hair the way the wounded child found a
that all black ladies still braid bearable escape in the world of
their babies’ hair. I’d sit on the Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe,
floor and Momma would sit on Paul Laurence Dunbar, and
a chair, and she would brush my others. Also during this time,
hair. And she would say, ‘Sister, she nourished her remarkable
Momma don’t care what people memory and honed her skills
say ’bout you must be a moron as an intense observer and
and you must be an idiot because listener. A unique friend of her
you can’t talk. Sister, Momma grandmother’s, Mrs. Bertha
don’t care. Momma knows when Flowers, took the wounded bird
you and the Lord get ready, you of a child under her wing anddrew her deeper into the world for the questioning nature of
of literature, using the child’s young adolescence. She quickly
love of poetry and prose to made arrangements to send the
release her from the limitations children to live, once again, with
of her self-imposed muteness. their mother, who had moved to
Maya’s love of literature San Francisco.
and the richness of language
would continue to open doors She came home running / back to
throughout her life. the mothering blackness—“The
Mothering Blackness” from Just
Her southern exposure / black death Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore
did befriend—“America” from Oh I Diiie
Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me
Well In San Francisco, Maya’s
complicated relationship with
The children lived with Annie her mother evolved into one of
Henderson until the harsh reality mutual respect. Maya came to the
of racism in Stamps, Arkansas, realization that while her mother
shocked their grandmother into was not prepared to be the
sending the children away from mother of young children, she
the safe haven she had attempted was a tower of love and strength
to create. When he was for a young woman. Seeking her
fourteen, Bailey arrived home first job, Maya longed to be a
one afternoon forever changed conductor on the San Francisco
because he had witnessed trolley cars. She was denied an
firsthand the hideous cruelty application because of her race.
of racism—something so ugly Vivian Baxter urged her daughter
that he was paralyzed with fear. not to accept defeat: “Give it
Local authorities had dragged everything you’ve got. Can’t
the corpse of a lynched man Do is like Don’t Care. Neither of
from a pond. The sight of the them have a home.” After weeks
bloated man’s mutilated body of sitting day after day in the
revealed a ghastly horror that Market Street Railway Company
shook the young boy to the core. office, the young girl, who lied
He could not fathom the cause about her age, was given the
of such hatred and brutality. But job, becoming the first African
Annie Henderson understood American to work as a streetcar
too well that while Stamps might conductor. However, the job
have been a safe place for small came with difficult hours. Each
children, it was not a safe place day, long before dawn, VivianAndrew Young, Maya Angelou, and Jesse Jackson
Baxter drove her daughter to I’’m a woman / Phenomenally. /
work and then followed the Phenomenal woman / That’’s me—
streetcar until the sun rose, “Phenomenal Woman” from And
determined to protect her from Still I Rise
any danger. As the job ended,
her mother reminded her, “You Maya’s years as a young mother
learned that you have power— were marked with adversity. She
power and determination.” Her shares those experiences with
mother’s positive encouragement unabashed honesty in Gather
was empowering to the young Together in My Name, the second
woman, who began to have faith and most controversial in the
in her abilities. autobiographical series. Maya
When Vivian realized that desperately struggled to establish
that Maya had become pregnant her independence and support her
at sixteen, she never shamed child in the face of overwhelming
her daughter, but supported her challenges. The naïve young girl
and helped her to believe in her was disappointed by a cast of
ability to be a good mother. Vivian men who used her and a society
Baxter remained her daughter’s that seemingly had little to offer.
champion for the remainder of Her story brought to life the ugly
her life, and Angelou honors her reality of the fast life and the
memory in Mom & Me & Mom, desperation of poverty as if to tell
released in 2013. others, “Look, I made mistakes,
and you can learn from themand avoid the same pitfalls.” She means that you do not accept
describes the experience of those what is being offered to you, or
years: “The life of the underworld being offered to anyone. Anger is
was truly a rat race, and most like fire; it burns up the drought
of its inhabitants scurried like and leaves some nutrients.” Those
rodents in the sewers and gutters nutrients seemed to provide
of the world. I had walked the Maya with amazing strength. I
precipice and seen it all.” As she commented about her remarkable
walked that dangerous precipice, resilience, and she responded,
a man she turned to for security “Resilience is an interesting word.
chose to expose her to his heroin It means that you have been
addiction in an attempt to scare somewhere and going somewhere
her straight. It worked. He pushed else and going somewhere else,
her away from the edge, and which is what we are all doing.”
she decided to take her life in a But we don’t all move forward
different direction. “I had no idea with the zeal, intensity, and
what I was going to make of my courage with which she still
life, but I had found my innocence. approaches life. Words are things,
I swore I’d never lose it again.” and Maya Angelou’s words have
Maya Angelou did not allow been the things that have helped
her experiences to define or defeat to change society. Her success has
her. While many would have been empowering, but I sense that
been overcome with despair and with Maya, it is also humbling.
resentment, she took responsibility When asked about humility, with
for her choices. When asked how wisdom she replied, “It comes
she dealt with the injustice and from inside out, not outside in. It
anger she must have felt, she says there was someone before
responded, “I did not become me. I am loved, and I have a
bitter. Bitterness is like a cancer; responsibility to prepare myself
it eats upon the host. It does not so that I can love someone else.
do anything to the object of one’s I am grateful that I have come
displeasure. I have never been through and have encouraged
bitter, but I can be angry at cruelty others to come through. I am
and at brutality and unkindness. grateful for that.”
Oh, yes, I am angry, and I speak
out against it and work against it I have a certain way of being in this
and encourage people not to live world / and I shall not, I shall not
with it. I think anger is good. Like be moved—“On Grandmothers”
anything, when it goes too far, from I Shall Not Be Moved
anger can be dangerous. AngerErnest Holmes teaches, “The I want to thank You, Lord / for life
mystics of every age have seen, and all that’’s in it—“Thank You,
sensed, and taught the same Lord” from And Still I Rise
truth! The great poets have been
true mystics who, through their In addition to Maya’s
poems, have revealed the Presence grandmother and mother,
of God….[They] have given us other loving, wise teachers
poetry which is immortal, because provided sparks of light that
they had a spiritual sense of life.” acted as guideposts and helped
When asked if she would agree to illuminate the way. Gospel,
with that statement, Maya replied, calypso, blues, jazz—the love
“I think it was Wordsworth who of music gave richness to her
said, ‘We all come from the creator life. Music also opened doors of
trailing clouds of glory.’ We are all opportunity. As a young mother,
creative. We may have it beaten Maya frequented a record store,
out of us, or kicked out of us when a bright spot amidst challenging
we are children, or we may never conditions. The young woman’s
have the chance to trust ourselves. self-taught knowledge of jazz
But we all come from the creator was noticed by the store’s owner,
trailing clouds of glory. who offered her employment
“Imagine a slave sold to another and kindness that developed
person who has the right to say this into a genuine friendship, her
person cannot move within one first friendship with a white
inch from where I say he or she adult. The store owner’s name
can move to and can live or die if was Louise Cox, and she was a
I say so. And that person says”— Christian Scientist. She shared
and she broke into powerful Christian Science literature with
song—“‘I open my mouth to Maya, who at this point was
the Lord, and I won’t turn back, questioning the concept of a
no, I shall go, I will go, I’ll see wrathful and unforgiving God.
what the end is gonna be.’ Now New ideas helped Maya expand
that’s a mystic. Daring! Imagine her understanding of the presence
this, imagine,” she continued in of God, an understanding that still
her mellow, deep, resonant voice serves her. “‘I know that God is all
singing the lines from the classic there is; there is no space where
Underground Railroad spiritual, God is not.’ I know that. There
“‘Go down Moses, way down in are certain things I know, and
Egypt land....’ Imagine being sold they allow me to continue to be
by somebody and singing that. as creative, and as kind, and as
That’s a mystic.” courageous as I can be at thatDr. Maya Angelou and President Clinton
moment. That’s one of them. of those words moved her. She
Another is ‘In God I live and move explained, “It still does. It does!
and have my being.’ I draw on At this moment, I am exalted; I
that all the time when I am most am taller than the tallest trees.
hurt and it feels I have not been That entity that created leaves
treated well, or when I feel my and flies and rivers and stars
body is not responding the way I loves me….” The depth and
wish it would. I draw upon that, sincerity of her emotion seemed
and it serves me very well.” to stop time and quicken the
Later, another friend, her voice heart, it was so powerful, and
teacher Mr. Frederick Wilkerson, then she continued, “I know
introduced Maya to the New that I am a child of God, and I
Thought philosophy through cannot be treated any which way.
the teachings of Unity. Under his I am precious, and I believe that
guidance, she joined a group and everyone else is precious. There
studied Lessons in Truth by Emilie were gospel songs that meant the
Cady. She recalled a time when world to me when I was a child.
Wilkie, as she called him, had I sang that with great fervor and
her read aloud a section ending great appreciation, but in later
with the words, “God loves me.” years I knew it. It wasn’t just a
She remembered that about the song that I sang.”
seventh repetition, she was struck Once, when she was overcome
with the “gravity and grandeur with anxiety at the challenge of
of it all.” The deep understanding raising a son to be happy andresponsible and liberated in racist Maya Angelou’s chronicle
society, she found herself in such continues to capture the best
despair that she contemplated and the worst of the American
suicide. She turned to Wilkie, and experience. Her story inspires
he told her, “Sit down right here generations to live with
at this table and write down your optimism and commitment.
blessings. Think of the millions Friendship, courage, faith,
of people all over the world who generosity, and love are the
cannot hear a choir, a symphony, themes that form the fiber of
or their own babies crying. Write her invincible life and the vast
down, ‘I can hear—Thank God.’” body of her work. Through
She remembered, “I followed her eyes, readers experience
Wilkie’s orders, and when I the challenge of being a good
reached the last line on the first mother and pursuing a career as
page of the yellow pad, the agent an artist. From her perspective,
of madness was routed.” She has we see Watts burning. With her,
continued to follow this practice. we walk the civil rights journey
“The challenging days of my and more fully understand the
existence may or may not be bright power, pride, and promise of
and promising. I maintain an better days. Through her tears,
attitude of gratitude. If I insist on we feel the heartbreak and
being pessimistic, there is always despair as she shares her sorrow
tomorrow. Today, I am blessed.” upon learning of the death of her
Her teachers have had a friends and mentors Malcolm
lasting impact: “These roads X and Dr. Martin Luther King.
to God, along with the roads I Maya Angelou continues to
already knew, have helped to bear powerful witness to the
make me secure.” At eighty- painful struggle and exhilarating
five, she continues to study birth of a new evolution of
and deepen her spiritual path, consciousness.
always a learner and a seeker. In 1993, she was asked to
“That which I am learning now read her poem “On the Pulse of
helps me to understand more Morning” at the inauguration
profoundly that which I have of President Bill Clinton.
been studying all of my life.” Her stories and poems have
succeeded in breaking open the
Lift up your eyes upon / this day heart of humanity and planting
breaking for you. / Give birth again seeds of understanding and love.
/ to the dream— “On the Pulse of I asked her if she sees her body of
Morning” work in that role. She responded,the old beliefs behind and try on
something that might not seem
like it is going to fit. We have
another chance. We have more
and more chances and more and
more time. Let’s pray mightily.”
When we come to it
We, this people, on this
wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this
earth
Maya Angelou reading Have the power to fashion for
“On the Pulse of Morning” this earth
A climate where every man and
in her honest and characteristic every woman
humility, “I think it is in that role, Can live freely without
and it will be used as it is useful. I sanctimonious piety
hope that it will be useful for the Without crippling fear
next few hundred years. I hope it
is useful for a middle-aged white When we come to it
woman in Des Moines, Iowa, and We must confess that we are the
a young Chinese boy in Calhoun possible
[Georgia], and an old black man We are the miraculous, the true
in Mississippi. I hope it will be of wonder of this world
use to everybody. If it is there, it That is when, and only when
will be of use, I pray. I have done We come to it.
my best to make it useful. I have a
feeling that we have already been From “A Brave and Startling
paid for and all we really have Truth.” Written for and read at
to do—journalists, ditch diggers, the Fiftieth Anniversary of the
ballet dancers—is prepare United Nations in 1995.
ourselves and pay for someone
else who is yet to come.” Maya Angelou was honored by
Does she believe that we the United Nations as one of
are evolving forward? Her the elders of the community of
enthusiastic response: “Yes I do! literary greats in October 2011.
Evolution is a slow dance. We
have to have some nerve, some
trust to dare to grow—to leaveYou can also read
