RIP Maya Angelou Still I Rise

Dr. Maya Angelou

Still I Rise  dead at 86

I was blessed earlier this year to be in the company of Dr. Maya Angelou  as she was presented as the Keynote Speaker at The Young Eventions Group’s (YEG) Women2Women Conference  held on Saturday, March 1, 2014 at the Marriot Marquis in Atlanta. Sonjia Waller Young, founder of YEG,  and dear friend of Dr. Maya Angelou created the conference to serve as a platform to bring generations of women together in order to inspire and empower one another. They could not have chosen a more appropriate person as one of  Dr. Maya Angelou’s gift was the ability to connect with both young and old.

While I have been in the company of Dr.  Maya Angelou and received her wise words of wisdom on many occasions, little did I know that would be the last time I would experience how one person can captivate a room.

Many will  connect her greatest work to being a great poet , author, civil rights icon or singer, I would argue that her greatest gift was the ability to move people.

Each time that I have been blessed by her presence and words of wisdom, she always left me with a call to action moment, in other words, MOVE!!!”

“If you  don’t want to  be complacent and your are  not where you want to be- Move!!!”

“Don’t allow the world define who you are and  if you are in the company of those people who are trying to do that– –MOVE!!!” 

And one  my favorite  Maya Angelou quotes is:

“Ive learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”

And you know what she was right, I will NEVER forget how empowered Dr. Maya Angelou made me feel.

Maya Angelou, Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Maya Angelou

RIP Dr. Maya Angelou you fought a good fight and now its time to receive your reward.