After publication of seven autobiographies, three essay collections, several volumes of poetry, the amassing of theater, move and television credits, receiving innumerable awards and 30-plus doctoral degrees, Marguerite Ann Johnson, otherwise known as Maya Angelou, has made her transition.
International and recognition and acclaim were first bestowed on Ms. Angelou at age 41, following publication of her book, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” Prior to this, she had spent her earlier adult life immersed in the tapestry of African-American artistic, cultural and political life.
Ms. Angelou was both central to and witnessed seismic shifts in consciousness of black people in America. She was led astray briefly by the seamy underbelly of racial oppression and the stifling of creative genius, part and parcel of a circumstance which entails excruciating risk.
Unlike other societies, American poets, writers and other artists are rarely jailed. They do, however, live on the cusps of stability, and too often like Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin or many jazz musicians of international renown, die penniless.
Angelou’s American dream was achieved by a relentless drive to honor a vision of celebration, uplift and witness. Her mastery of all genres she engaged contributed to her consistently captivating audiences, her variegated productivity ensuring that the soil nourishing her endeavor would lie fallow only to replenish itself.
With the recent demise of Sam Greenlee, we see how otherwise black creativity can be made invisible for decades. Maya spoke her truth as boldly as the great Chicagoan, but remained a moving target, so to speak. Just thinking about her is dazzling.
Maya continued speaking her truth, and those who had what Gwendolyn Brooks called a “heart hunger” for poetry remained attuned to her voice, including an American president. Then, too, Maya had the ancestors on her side.
She lectured about the metaphoric content of African-American spirituals preceding the advent of Modern poetry formulations by Ezra Pound. Pound cited Haiku as his inspiration. Maya pointed out the “objective correlative,” T. S. Eliot’s term, of a green tree bending and a sinful human figure out in the same storm.
We are as African-American artists, like all artists, thieves, and we best follow Maya’s example and not neglect ancestors in cotton fields for our Promethean pillaging.
Ruth-Miriam Garnett is author of “Laelia,” a novel, and two collections of poetry, Concerning Violence and A Move Further South. A second novel, “Chloe’s Grief,” will appear in fall 2014.
