PANACHE -M f
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agazine
Special Tribute
Maya Angelou
Sunrise April 4, 1928 – Sunset May 28, 2014 Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / JUNE 2014
R.I.P MAYA ANGELOU, THE PHENOMENAL WOMAN
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by Zoe Apostolides
rite what you know: advice as pertinent to a struggling child in a classroom as to an aging novelist completing their last great work. For a woman like Maya Angelou, it seems incredible that seven autobiographies managed to contain such a life, such a vast collection of selves and places and people. For better or worse, she knew an awful lot. She knew that often the most powerful stories are our own stories, and that hers was one to be shouted. She knew that words could dance off pages and lodge deep in those who care to listen, and she has died aged 86 leaving many brave and startling truths in her wake. In a life spanning several countries, countless awards, marriages, incredible highs and desperate lows, Angelou’s opened many doors. At 16, she became the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco; her screenplay, Georgia, Georgia, was the first original script by a black woman to be produced. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, arguably the most important book of the twentieth century, was one of the first to publically damn the horrors of racism and present them to a mass market. She was loud and she was dangerous. She worked with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X; President Obama awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 – no higher award can be granted to a civilian in the States. Reaching middle age Angelou had already packed more punches than most as a writer, a poet, an editor, a campaigner, a teacher, professor, an actress, a singer, dancer, a wife and a mother. “My life has been long,”
she wrote, “and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring still.” Hers is a language of champions – often filled with rage and so much more powerful because of this. “I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.” There is so much to celebrate Angelou for, yet much to reflect upon: her experience of childhood abuse resulted in a period of complete silence for five years; she became pregnant with her first and only child while still in her senior year at high school. And yet, as she writes in one poem, “when old folks laugh, they free the world./ They turn slowly, slyly knowing/ the best and the worst/ of remembering.” When I was 14 we had a poetry reading competition at school – I picked ‘Phenomenal Woman’ because it sounded like a song. I knew very little about Maya Angelou back then, I remember just liking the words and the rhythm. We had nothing in common, we’d had no shared experience: I was an angsty teenager with badly-dyed hair and a too-short skirt in south London. But still, we are all of us more alike, as she wrote, than we are unalike. It was fine not to want to be ‘cute’, it was good to stride. Her poem comes from a well of reserve, curling lips and honey bees, fiery eyes and flashing teeth. At 14, she was everything I wanted to be in just 70 lines. She still is. http://www.lifetimetv.co.uk/features/rip-mayaangelou-the-phenomenal-woman
JUNE 2014 / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com
Maya Angelou BIOGRAPHY Biography and images courtesy of LIFETIME TV Website http://www.lifetimetv.co.uk/features/about. Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / JUNE 2014
Maya A
Maya Angelou BIOGRAPHY Biography and images courtesy of LIFETIME TV Website http://www.lifetimetv.co.uk/features/about.
Dr. Maya Angelou in San Francisco, at the time of the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1970. Photo, MayaAngelou.com.
Maya Angelou and civil rights activist Malcolm X
JUNE 2014 / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com
Angelou
Maya Angelou BIOGRAPHY Biography and images courtesy of LIFETIME TV Website http://www.lifetimetv.co.uk/features/about.
Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / JUNE 2014
Maya A
Honored: Among the countless accolades Angelou received was the 2010 Medal of Freedom, presented by Pre JUNE 2014 / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com
Angelou
esident Barack Obama in February 2011. Photo by The Associated Press Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / JUNE 2014
Accreditation of the w POETRY • Maya Angelou, reciting her poem, "On the Pulse of Morning", at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993 • Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-47142-6[14] • Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-45707-0 • And Still I Rise (1978). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-50252-6[9] • Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? (1983). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-521447[15][16] • Poems (1986). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-553-25576-2 • Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987). New York: Plume Books. ISBN 0-452-27143-6 • I Shall Not Be Moved (1990). New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-35458-2 • "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-748385[17] • The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-42895-X • Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women (1995). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-43924-2 • A Brave and Startling Truth (1995). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-449043[18] • "From a Black Woman to a Black Man", 1995 • "Amazing Peace" (2005). New York: Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6558-5[16] • "Mother: A Cradle to Hold Me" (2006). New York: Random House. ISBN 1-40006601-8
• "Celebrations, Rituals of Peace and Prayer" (2006). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-307-77792-8 • Poetry for Young People (2007). Berkshire, U.K.: Sterling Books. ISBN 1-4027-2023-8 • "We Had Him", 2009[19] • "His Day is Done", 2012[20] PERSONAL ESSAYS • Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-553-56907-4 • Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997). New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50031-6 • Letter to My Daughter (2008). New York: Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6612-3 COOKBOOKS • Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes (2004). New York: Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6289-6 • Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart (2010). New York: Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6844-4 CHILDREN'S BOOKS • Life Doesn't Frighten Me (1993). New York: Stewart, Tabori, and Chang. ISBN 1-55670288-4 • My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken and Me (1994). New York: Knopf Books. ISBN 0-517-59667-9 • Kofi and His Magic (1996). New York: Knopf Books. ISBN 0-517-59667-9 • Maya's World series (2004). New York: Random House: • Itak of Lapland, ISBN 0-375-92833-2 • Angelina of Italy, ISBN 0-375-82832-X • Renée Marie of France ISBN 0-375-828346 • Mikale of Hawaii ISBN 0-375-92835-9
JUNE 2014 / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com
works of Maya Angelou PLAYS • Cabaret for Freedom (musical revue), with Godfrey Cambridge, 1960 • The Least of These, 1966 • The Best of These (drama), 1966 • Gettin' up Stayed on My Mind, 1967 • Sophocles, Ajax (adaptation), 1974 • And Still I Rise (writer/director), 1976 FILM AND TELEVISION • Black, Blues, Black! (ten one-hour programs, National Education Television), 1968 • Georgia, Georgia, Sweden, 1972 • All Day Long (writer/director), 1974 • PBS documentaries (1975): • Who Cares About Kids & Kindred Spirits (KERA-TV, Dallas, Texas) • Maya Angelou: Rainbow in the Clouds (WTVS-TV, Detroit, Michigan) • To the Contrary (Maryland Public Television) • Tapestry and Circles • Assignment America (six one-half hour programs), 1975 • Part One: The Legacy; Part Two: The Inheritors (writer and host), 1976 • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (writer for script and musical score), 1979 • Sister, Sister (writer), 20th Century Fox Television, 1982 • Brewster Place (writer), ABC, 1990 • Down in the Delta (director), Miramax Films, 1998
• Look Away, 1973 • Roots, ABC, 1977 • Runaway, Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions, 1993 • Touched by an Angel ("Reunion"), CBS, 1995 • How to Make an American Quilt, Universal Pictures, 1995 • Madea's Family Reunion, Tyler Perry Studios, 2006 RECORDINGS • Miss Calypso, Scamp Records, 1957 • For the Love of Ivy, ABC Records, 1968 • Spoken-Word albums • The Poetry of Maya Angelou, GWP Records, 1969 • Women in Business, 1981 • On the Pulse of Morning, Random House Audio, 1993[21] • Been Found (with Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson),[9] Ichiban Old Indie, 1996 • A Song Flung Up to Heaven, Random House Audio, 2002[21]
FILMS AND PLAYS • Porgy and Bess, 1954–1955 • Calypso, 1957 • The Blacks, 1960 • Mother Courage, 1964
Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / JUNE 2014
Autobiographies
JUNE 2014 / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com
by Maya Angelou
• • • • • • •
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) 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) Mom & Me & Mom (2013)
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Inspiring Quotes fr In tribute to this iconic author, Panache e-Magazine presents a few of Maya Angelou’s most inspiring quotes.
JUNE 2014 / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com
rom Maya Angelou
Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / JUNE 2014
Inspiring Quotes fr
JUNE 2014 / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com
rom Maya Angelou
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“And Still I Rise” May the Soul of Ms Maya Angelou Rest in Peace, truly one of the greatest modern day Poets, Authors, Activists and as well as an inspiration to billions sadly passed away at the humble age of 86 on Wednesday 28th May 2014, and the world has been shaken with the devastating news one of the biggest heroes of our time has passed. Maya Angelou BIOGRAPHY Biography and images courtesy of LIFETIME TV Website http://www.lifetimetv.co.uk/features/about.
JUNE 2014 / Special Tribute to MAYA ANGELOU / Visit: www.panacheoccasions.com