#Quote
“Creativity or talent, like electricity, is something I don’t understand but something I’m able to harness and use. While electricity remains a mystery, I know I can plug into it and light up a cathedral or a synagogue or an operating room and use it to help save a life. Or I can use it to electrocute someone. Like electricity, creativity makes no judgment. I can use it productively or destructively. The important thing is to use it. You can’t use up creativity. The more you use it, the more you have.”
—Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou in Africa: The Egypt and Ghana years.
In the 1950s, Maya Angelou moved to New York where she later met and began a romantic relationship with South African anti-apartheid activist Vusumzi L. Make. The two soon moved to Cairo, Egypt, in 1961 along with Angelou’s son Guy Johnson. Angelou and Make lived together in Cairo for a short time where Angelou served as the editor of the English language weekly publication The Arab Observer.
After separating from Make in 1962, Angelou and her son moved to Accra, Ghana, where Angelou joined many other African-American expatriates living in the country. There, whilst her son attended college and later recovered from an automobile accident, she served as an instructor and assistant administrator at the University of Ghana’s School of Music and Drama, worked as feature editor for The African Review and wrote for The Ghanaian Times and the Ghanaian Broadcasting Company.
During Malcolm X’s 1964 visit to Ghana, the two met in the country’s capital city (pictured) and began corresponding. That same year, Angelou relocated back to the United States with the intention of assisting Malcolm X build his new Organization of Afro-American Unity, however, Malcolm X would be assassinated a few months after her arrival in the US.
Her book All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986): Explores Angelou’s experiences living in Ghana with her son from 1962 to 1965.
Maya Angelou, honored poet and essayist (April 4, 1928 - May 28, 2014)
- “Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”
- “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
- “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
- “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
- “My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.”
- “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
- “You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.”
- “Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
Maya Angelou photographed by Taylor Jewell for Cole Haan Fall 2013
American author and poet Maya Angelou, an eloquent commentator on race and gender best known for her groundbreaking autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” has died at age 86 in North Carolina. See more of her quotes and read about her life.
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
“The question is not how to survive, but how to thrive with passion, compassion, humor and style.”
“When people show you who they are, believe them.”
“Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides, just like hopes springing high, still I’ll rise.”
“My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who and how you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.”
“This is a wonderful day. I have never seen this one ever before.”
“A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim."
"Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size. But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies. I say, It’s in the reach of my arms, The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I’m a woman.Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me.”
#Maya Angelou #MayaAngelou
“Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.”
#Maya Angelou
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