Angelou Lets Her Light Shine

by Jacquelyn Hallum

On November 16th, in a small rural Appalachian town, an extraordinary guest paid a visit, and the town was forever changed.

The eighth wonder of the world flew into this small town with a silver cage that had a beautiful nest only fit for the rarest bird. This bird had a wingspan that has covered a nation in historical knowledge and literature. This bird was the renowned Dr. Maya Angelou.

She has gained worldwide eminence as Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize nominee, teacher, prolific writer and historian, storyteller, carrier of music, humorist, mom, friend and outstanding American of African decent. She has done her diaspora proud.



Dr.
Angelou was greeted with a standing ovation. She immediately set the
theme of the evening-which was that we have the responsibility of
letting our light shine. Her resonant voice sang the first few bars of
the well-known “This Little Light of Mine”. She came to tell us a
story, and she was not leaving until she finished.


Part of that
story was how African-American poetry was a light on the path of one
people. She told her story to a sold out audience of 1,300 in Mars Hill
College’s Moore Auditorium. Those in the audience basked in the glory
of Angelou’s six-foot frame and the wisdom of her words. The audience
hung on her every word, and listened with every cell of their being.


Angelou
expressed her love of the beauty of the Carolina Mountains. She also
spoke of her respect for Joe Anderson, a former slave owned by Mars
Hill College and the great-great grandfather of Oralene Graves Simmons.
Angelou also recited several quotes or readings from Langston Hughes,
Daisy Bates, Ann Spencer, a nineteenth century Black poet who wrote a
poem to women titled , “A Letter to My Sisters”, and last but certainly
not least, Paul Laurence Dunbar. Angelou’s appreciation of Dunbar stems
from his writings in the dialect of the “plantation negro”.


Angelou
acknowledged that much of her literature is about the lives of those
who died and suffered during the middle passage. Her descriptions of
these devastating voyages are to make sure the spirits and the lives of
these unwilling passengers will not be forgotten.