Maya Angelou: ‘God Loves Me’ – ‘That’s Why I Am Who I Am’
Photo Credit: APBy Michael W. Chapman.
Celebrated author and poet Maya Angelou, who died on Wednesday at age 86, said in an interview last year that after studying at the Unity church, she came to fully realize that “God loves me,” that God made the physical world and human beings, and that this is why she, Angelou, exists and she is “amazed at it and grateful for it.”
Angelou (1928-2014), who experienced a very difficult childhood, which included sexual abuse and rape by her mother’s boyfriend, wrote seven autobiographical works, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She also wrote numerous volumes of poetry, several children’s books and eight plays. She was a liberal Democrat who recited a poem at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1993, and she campaigned for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primaries. Angelou eventually supported Barack Obama.
In a May 12, 2013 interview on the Oprah Winfrey program, “SuperSoulSunday,” Angelou discussed her spiritual beliefs, explaining she had started an online course at Unity church and it helped her to better understand God’s love.
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Photo Credit: AP / Mary AltafferMaya Angelou, Celebrated Poet and Author, Dies
By Hillel Italie.
Maya Angelou’s story awed millions. A childhood victim of rape, she broke through silence and shame to tell her tale in one of the most widely read memoirs of the 20th century. A black woman born into poverty and segregation, she recited the most popular presidential inaugural poem in history.
“I’m not modest,” she told The Associated Press in 2013. “I have no modesty. Modesty is a learned behavior. But I do pray for humility, because humility comes from the inside out.”
Angelou, a renaissance woman and cultural pioneer, died Wednesday at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 86.
“She lived a life as a teacher, activist, artist and human being. She was a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace,” said her son, Guy B. Johnson.
Tall and regal, with a deep, majestic voice, she was unforgettable whether encountered in person, through sound or the printed word. She was an actress, singer and dancer in the 1950s and 1960s and made a brave and sensational debut as an author in 1969 with “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” which became standard (and occasionally censored) reading and made Angelou one of the first black women to enjoy mainstream literary success.
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