Maya A Precious Prism.

As a poet and personality, Maya Angelou always commands that we expect the world!

It is entirely fitting that the month in which Maya Angelou celebrates her birthday--April--is also National Poetry Month. On April 4, she turns 73. In 1993, she was acknowledged as a treasured national literary resource and poetic visionary when our 42nd President, William Jefferson Clinton, chose her as his Inaugural Poet. To seal her in our national literary pantheon for the New Milennium, he also bestowed on her, just before he left office, the National Medal of Arts.

Angelou is a precious national prism: a resilient and multi-faceted instrument through which we are privy to the awe of it all. And she is black and exuberant about it. As a writer she is a popular favorite who, in the tradition of Langston, Zora and Shakespeare, has earned a place both in the hearts of the people and in the canon guarded by her peers. That she's done this initially through autobiography is in itself impressive. Then there's the poetry, the voice, her carriage, wisdom and dignity--layers of the stuff of which legacies are made.

Maya has lived a thousand lives as a black woman making a way where there was none before. She's been an actress, an activist, a dancer, a professor, a child victim of rape, a madam, a teenage mother, a restaurateur, a poet, a prophet, a queen. Maya's been mute and she's sung for a living, known poverty and life as a multimillionaire, read aloud in church and read her poetry before heads of state. She's written plays, directed films and conducted an orchestra. She's been nominated for a Tony and an Emmy, won a Grammy and had streets, schools and babies named after her.

Maya has known, worked with or befriended every black personality you can think of. She worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., succeeded Bayard Rustin at SNCC, planned strategy with Malcolm, toured the world with dramatic actors Cicely Tyson and Roscoe Lee Brown, formed a dance duo with Alvin Ailey and fed Billie Holiday in her kitchen. She's lived in Egypt, Ghana, Paris, Brooklyn and on a houseboat as part of a California commune. Fluent in five languages, a masterful cook, a consummate hostess, a college professor and one of the top moneymakers on the speaker circuit, she remains an inspiration.

Where many would be exhausted, she's exhilarated, relishing the future and processing the past. Thankfully, in looking back, she's been clear enough to let the light shine through and generous enough to testify, providing a window on the universal through the autobiographical. We could not have lived so many lives in this lifetime, not so boldly or so well, had we not read Maya.

"I've known Maya more than 30 years," says poet, scholar and essayist Eugene Redmond. "What may appear to be a meteoric rise has actually been a measured and powerful one. What hasn't changed is that Maya is always growing. She is constantly studying and she plays games--word games, parlour games and card games, to keep her mind sharp. She's 72 and she's smokin'!"

There have been those who question if Maya, in her senior years, captures the attention or imagination of the younger generation, but a 1999 New York Times article reported that Maya was the top requested speaker on college campuses across the nation. While some wonder if she's out of touch with the issues of the day, The Advocate, a gay and lesbian magazine, cited her as one of the "25 Coolest Women," saying, "Forget Nike, Angelou invented, `Just Do It!'" More than a few have pointedly questioned Maya's support of former President Clinton. In fact, columnist Alexander Cockburn once referred to her as "the Clinton groupie and versifier." But Maya has also spoken critically of the former President. She's commented on Clinton's infamous vacillation on important issues, saying, "You can't just play around with all of these big cats--you've got to take somebody on!"

Other people ponder the significance of Maya's place upon the throne. Does she still belong to us, the folks who love her, or has she been claimed by the literary, academic and political worlds and by mainstream America? Or worse, has she become a tool of the money and power elite? (Her arresting and authoritative voice is now selling The New York Times in television commercials.)

It would seem that for all her dedication to us, these questions should be put directly to her, rather than murmured under the current. In the meantime, Maya has said she strives to love without limiting, to cherish without coveting. Those who love her would do well to follow this example. Her many journeys have led her to seek the path of unity, where our common humanity is explicit and our differences are only melodies in the symphony.

Perhaps the most discordant note sounded concerning Maya in recent years, was heard in September of 1999, when novelist Francine Prose published a lengthy article in Harper's magazine entitled, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read--How American high school students learn to loathe literature." In what many have called a rancorous commentary, Prose brands Angelou's writing as inferior and injurious.

"I find myself, each September, increasingly appalled by the dismal texts that my sons are doomed to waste a school year reading," Prose says in the article, citing what she calls, "the manipulative melodramas of Alice Walker and Maya Angelou."

She says of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, "One can see why this memoir might appeal to the lazy or uninspired teacher who can conduct the class as if the students were the studio audience for Angelou's guest appearance on Oprah. But much more terrifying than the prospect of Angelou's pieties being dissected for their deeper meaning, is the notion of her language being used as a model of "poetic" prose style.... Who told students to [place] a dozen mixed metaphors in one paragraph? Where do students learn to write stale, inaccurate similes?" And she goes on.

As could be expected, Prose's article raised quite a few eyebrows and tempers in African American literary and academic circles. Some found her tone exceedingly caustic, and thought that while Prose is clearly no fan, she failed to consider that Maya's work appeals to some widespread black aesthetic preferences. While it hardly needs be said that African American readers have varying palates, it should be equally as clear by now, that we can figure out what holds value for us without the aid of self-appointed arbiters of taste.

Will Halsey, a poet and literature professor, feels Prose missed the boat. He says Maya's work has resonated with people of all races and backgrounds and is particularly expressive of the black experience.

"We are a mixed-metaphor people," says Halsey. "You have to mix it up for us: that's our clarity. We're responding to all the convergences. Faulknerian descriptive narrative is not capturing people anymore in this age of magic realism."

Ask most black readers and you will hear echoes of Halsey's protest. We claim Maya despite the criticisms and the controversy. She reminds us of home and models success and fulfillment with style, compassion and artistry. We think she has a way with words. Some believe Maya's self-imposed silence in childhood was the training ground for the poet, writer and speaker she would become. Clearly, she had been listening while not speaking; her exile from words may have led to her enchantment with literature, diction and cadence. Language loved her back, and it's been hot and heavy ever since. There are few things more sensual than the sight, the sound and the feeling of Maya at the podium rapturously enveloped in language, its beauty and power lighting her eyes and bewitching her smile.

Beauty in the flesh, in the word and in the deed, have become Maya Angelou's calling cards. The girl who didn't think much of her looks has gone on to become one of the most majestic women we've ever known--and we do feel we know her. We love Maya for who she has dared to be--not perfect, but grand! Her example is an invitation to liberation, creative fulfillment and love. And we accept.

Reading Angelou

Her more than 20 looks include memoir, poetry, stories for children and even a cookbook!

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Bantam Books, 1997, $12.00, ISBN 0-553-38001-X

Gather Together in My Name Bantam Books, 1997, $12.00, ISBN 0-553-37997-6

Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas Bantam Books, 1997, $12.00, ISBN 0-553-38005-2

The Heart of A Woman Random House, 1997, $20.00, ISBN 0-679-50072-3

All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes Vintage Books, 1991, $10.00, ISBN 0-679-73404-X

Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now Random House, 1993, $17.00, ISBN 0-679-42743-0

Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well Random House, 1997, $15.00, ISBN 0-679-45707-0

On The Pulse of Morning Random House, 1993, $6.00, ISBN 0-679-7438-5

Mrs. Flowers (out of print) Redpath Press, 1986, $4.95, ISBN 1-55628-009-2

Now Sheba Sings the Song (with Tom Feelings) Dutton/Plume, 1994, $13.95, ISBN 0-452271436

Poems Bantam Books, 1997, $12.00, ISBN 0-553-37895-2

A Brave And Startling Truth Random House, 1995, $10.00, ISBN 0-679-42895-X

And Still I Rise: Poems Random House, 1996, $12.00, ISBN 0-679-44988-4

I Shall Not Be Moved Random House, 1997, $15.95, ISBN 0-679-45708-9

Caribbean and African Cooking (with Rosamund Grant) Interlink Publishing Group, 1998, $15.00, ISBN 1-56656-275-9

Even the Stars Look Lonesome Bantam Books, 1999, $10.00, ISBN 0-553-37972-0

Soul Looks Back In Wonder (with Tom Feelings) Bantam Books for Young Readers, 1998, $6.99, ISBN 0-140-56501-9

Voyage of the Amistad NAL, 1999, $14.95, ISBN 0-525-94411-7

Phenomenal Woman Random House, 2000, $19.95, ISBN 0-375-50406-0

Life Doesn't Frighten Me At All Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1996, $17.95, ISBN 1-55670-288-4

Maya Angelou: The Complete Collected Poems Random House, 1994, $24.00, ISBN 0-679-42895-X

My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me Crown, 1996, $6.99, ISBN 0-517-88815-7

Maitefa Angaza is a journalist, essayist and editorial consultant living with her family in Brooklyn, New York. She is the former executive director of The City Sun newspaper and currently works in the editorial department of The Daily Challenge newspaper. An occasional contributor to BIBR, she has also published in several other publications including Essence magazine. Ms. Angaza is a student/practitioner of the spiritual sciences, a founding member of Shrim Sa, The Shepsu Day Committee and Andsister: The Gemi Men Shaat/Iyabode Memorial Sisterhood, and works with the International African Arts Festival. Ms. Angaza explores the controversial legacy of Maya Angelou in our cover story beginning on page 30.