Maya: And Still I Rise is an Astounding Look at a Profound Artist
Actress, Singer, Dancer, Writer, Activist, Mother and Poet, Maya Angelou spent her entire life rising above the odds to become one of America’s most beloved living treasures of American history.
Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise gives a rare glimpse to the world of Angelou that has rarely been seen through the eyes of close friends and her only son.
Like many, the first book of hers I ever read was I Know Why The Caged-Bird Sings. Having been a rape survivor, I could relate to the shame, humiliation and secrecy one vows to never have the truth hit the light of day. That book, to this day is one of my all time favorites. Not just because of its genius prose, but because it helped me through one of the most difficult chapters of my youthful life.
As with so many public figures and celebrities, we feel as though we know them because they invade our homes through a television or movie screen. But,what do we really know except for the image that is carefully crafted for us to see.
We don’t know the heartbreak of never having a lifetime love. We don’t know how isolating and lonely it is to be a strong, intelligent, independent Black woman. We don’t know what it is to balance love for a parent, even when that parent treats you as if you have rocks for a brain. These are the Maya Angelou private images we would never know…until now.
Who knew she was originally my homegirl from St. Louis or that was known as Miss Calypso or that she was in the touring company of “Porgy and Bess” or that she had aspired to understudy the late, great Pearl Bailey? It’s all those stories and more that make you wish with each word her booming voice and presence were still here to give a speech one last time.
It was Maya Angelou and my Mom that gave me the best advice ever…”When someone shows you who they are…believe them”. It is a lesson that has been hard to learn and even harder to adhere to. But, with each day, rings true with each relationship old and new. You have to listen to whether that lesson is a whisper or a bellowed yell. Whichever one it is…you will know instantly to “believe” and/or let go.
Thanks to Rita Coburn Whack and Bob Hercules, we will forever have an archive of the deep, beautiful tones that could only inhabit Maya Angelou. Her love for life, art and humanity superseded most prejudices. She never backed down from what she believed in and was touched by some of our most prolific African-Americans like James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and so many more that we, as a culture, have loved and lost.
Interview with Director Rita Coburn Whack:
Interview with Maya Angelou’s son – Guy Johnson who say some mind blowing things about his Mom and Donald Trump
Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise premiered to critical acclaim at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award at AFI Docs, The film was also featured at other notable fests worldwide winning 9 awards on 3 continents and has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
American Masters has launched a year-long online campaign, #InspiringWomanPBS, based on themes central to Dr. Angelou’s life: artistic expression, academic success, active community engagement and acceptance of difference.
Carla Renata
I love, love love movies, watching them and discussing them...thus the birth of The Curvy Film Critic!!! Host/Producer/FilmCritic, Carla Renata is a member of such esteemed organizations as Critics Choice Association (Former Co-President Documentary Branch and Board Member), African American Film Critics Association and Online Association of Female Film Critics. My op-eds or features have been seen in Variety , RogerEbert.com, The Wrap,as well as being a frequent Guest Contributor to Fox 11-LA, Good Day LA, RogerEbert.com, ITV, BBC and CNN Catch my reviews on The Curvy Critic with Carla Renata - LIVE!!! weekly via You Tube. If you like what you read please shout me out and subscribe to The Curvy Critic on YouTube. You can chat with me across all social media platforms @TheCurvyCritic and as always, thanks for supporting a sista'
6 Comments
rolondawatts
BRAVA! I will make sure the family sees this! See you tomorrow!
*Rolonda Watts*
*CEO & President* *Watts Works Productions* *137 North Larchmont Blvd. #652* *Los Angeles, CA 90004* *323-465-5100* *r olonda@rolonda.com *
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On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 6:02 AM, The Curvy Film Critic wrote:
> Carla Renata posted: “Actress, Singer, Dancer, Writer, Activist, Mother > and Poet, Maya Angelou spent her entire life rising above the odds to > become one of America’s most beloved living treasures of American history. > Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise gives a rare glimpse to th” >
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Patricia Barbee
My inspiring woman: my Godmother, Dr. Lena Frances Edwards-Madison.
She was to get the Medal of Freedom in December, 1963 from President John F. Kennedy, however 22 November, 1963 happened. President Lyndon Baines Johnson presented Godmother her Medal in December, 1964.
Carla Renata
Wow…what an amazing story!! Thank you so much for sharing. What did your Godmother get the Medal of Freedom for?
Lynn Martin
She was named Dawn Gloria by her parents Arthel and Mable Campbell in Oklahoma City, 1935. The last of five children, she was a little curly headed freckled face doll and loved by her three older sisters and brother. Her mother was born in 1892 in Temple, Texas, 43 years old when she brought Dawn into the world and came from a different time being born 27 years after the end of slavery, picking cotton, living with lynchings, segregation, discrimination, racism, working in houses cleaning and cooking. Dawn was raised with the current times colored with her parents past and knew all too well how a little black girl was viewed and treated in the United States of America, in Cincinnati during the 1940’s and 1950’s. In the 1952 she married Carl Louis Johnson and changed her beautiful name Dawn Gloria Campbell to Donna Johnson, by 1962 she had 6 children, four daughters and two sons. She became involved in the Civil Rights movement. a member of SNCC and opened a book store called the Black Arts Studio on McMillan St. in Walnut Hills in Cincinnati and advocated blackness and many young people heard her voice, was able to see themselves in the art, the books, the conversations, in respect, telling them of their worthiness and their importance. You took that away from her voice and her presence. I tell how inspiring she was because she like many other voices that inspired were not famous, weren’t written about, the news didn’t report on her. but whose voices impacted the thoughts and intent of many. She was not a poet like Ms. Angelou or Nikki Giovanni, though she may have heard her voice, She was Donna Johnson, my mother a woman who inspired.
Carla Renata
OMG! This was so incredibly beautiful and heartbreaking. How proud your mother must have been of you🙏🏾❤