1
00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:08,039
Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff. Lauren

2
00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:15,080
Speaker 1: Vogelbaum here, writer, activist, entertainer, and teacher. Maya Angelou was

3
00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:18,479
Speaker 1: a beloved artist and household name, a rarity for an

4
00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:23,200
Speaker 1: African American woman who confronted controversial topics in public. She

5
00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:27,280
Speaker 1: spoke openly about race, violence, gender, and Black history in

6
00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:33,040
Speaker 1: her memoirs, poems, and speeches. Angelou is perhaps best known

7
00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:35,599
Speaker 1: for her nineteen sixty nine memoir I Know Why the

8
00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:39,400
Speaker 1: Caged Bird Sings, which recounts her childhood in Stance, Arkansas,

9
00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:44,279
Speaker 1: and San Francisco, dealing with themes of racism, identity, and

10
00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:47,839
Speaker 1: sexual violence. The book won the hearts of literary critics

11
00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:51,320
Speaker 1: and everyday readers alike, and has been reprinted numerous times,

12
00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:55,040
Speaker 1: yet it's often banned from schools for its depictions of

13
00:00:55,080 --> 00:01:02,040
Speaker 1: sexual assault and supposed anti white messaging. The success of

14
00:01:02,080 --> 00:01:06,200
Speaker 1: that first memoir spurred Angelou to write six more autobiographical books,

15
00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:09,320
Speaker 1: in addition to three books of essays, several books of poetry,

16
00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:14,400
Speaker 1: plus plays, screenplays, and even two cookbooks. She earned dozens

17
00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:18,039
Speaker 1: of honorary degrees, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and a

18
00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:22,640
Speaker 1: legacy that's endured via class curricula, contemporary black feminist writers,

19
00:01:22,760 --> 00:01:27,640
Speaker 1: and even internet memes. Angelou's words are so resonant that

20
00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:30,320
Speaker 1: you can't throw a stone in US media without hitting

21
00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:34,640
Speaker 1: one of the late author's quotes. For the article, this

22
00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:37,160
Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke with doctor

23
00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:41,000
Speaker 1: Linda Wagner Martin, author of the books Maya Angelou, Adventurous

24
00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,800
Speaker 1: Spirit and the Life of the author Maya Angelou. She

25
00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:48,880
Speaker 1: noted that even Judge Katanji Brown Jackson quoted Angelou at

26
00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:51,520
Speaker 1: the White House after her Supreme Court confirmation in twenty

27
00:01:51,520 --> 00:01:55,600
Speaker 1: twenty two. Jackson said, I am the dream and the

28
00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:58,720
Speaker 1: hope of the slave a, referencing a line in Angelou's

29
00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:03,360
Speaker 1: poem Still I Rise. A. Wagner Martin said, Maya Angelou

30
00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:08,320
Speaker 1: reminds us all of our better selves. Today, Let's delve

31
00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:11,400
Speaker 1: deeper into the life of this renowned author, using quotes

32
00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:15,800
Speaker 1: from Maya Angelou herself. We'll start with one that really

33
00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:19,079
Speaker 1: resonates with me. Believe people when they tell you who

34
00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:23,720
Speaker 1: they are, they know themselves better than you. This line

35
00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:27,160
Speaker 1: appeared in Angelou's sixth memoir, A Song Flung Up to Heaven,

36
00:02:27,400 --> 00:02:30,280
Speaker 1: which chronicles her life between nineteen sixty five and nineteen

37
00:02:30,360 --> 00:02:35,080
Speaker 1: sixty eight. In context, Angelou was referencing a man named

38
00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:37,520
Speaker 1: Phil who told her that he was ornery and a

39
00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:41,960
Speaker 1: liar when they first met. Weeks later, he purposefully stopped

40
00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:45,240
Speaker 1: on railroad tracks while Angelou was in his car, taking

41
00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:47,920
Speaker 1: off just in time to narrowly miss being hit by

42
00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:52,960
Speaker 1: an approaching train. The incident scared Angelou deeply and convinced

43
00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:55,160
Speaker 1: her that he was indeed as ornery as he had

44
00:02:55,160 --> 00:02:59,760
Speaker 1: proclaimed himself. But according to Wagner Martin, this was a

45
00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:02,520
Speaker 1: life lesson that likely reared its head many times over

46
00:03:02,560 --> 00:03:05,160
Speaker 1: the course of her life, especially given all the jobs

47
00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:08,560
Speaker 1: Angelou worked to support herself and her son, including fry cook,

48
00:03:08,680 --> 00:03:13,880
Speaker 1: streetcar conductor, sex worker, and nightclub singer. Wagner Martin said

49
00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:17,480
Speaker 1: people took advantage of her in the usual ways, so

50
00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:20,800
Speaker 1: she had learned to be suspicious of motives. By the

51
00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:23,680
Speaker 1: time she became the impressive public speaker that people remember,

52
00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:28,040
Speaker 1: she had lived through decades of penury, decades of various betrayals.

53
00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:31,840
Speaker 1: She knew how unkind people could be, but her message

54
00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:37,280
Speaker 1: in her dynamic lectures remained positive. The quote is sometimes

55
00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:40,720
Speaker 1: rephrased as when people show you who they are, believe them,

56
00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:44,440
Speaker 1: and Oprah Winfrey added her own twist on this. Winfrey

57
00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:48,040
Speaker 1: considered Angelou a close friend and mentor, and in a

58
00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:51,560
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, Winfrey

59
00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:55,520
Speaker 1: recalled discussing with Angelou a boyfriend who continuously stood her up.

60
00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,240
Speaker 1: Angelou reminded her of the life lesson and asked her

61
00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:01,240
Speaker 1: why she did didn't get it the first time he

62
00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:05,960
Speaker 1: showed he was unreliable, so Winfrey said, her adjunct to

63
00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:09,120
Speaker 1: Angelou's quote is when people show you who they are,

64
00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:14,840
Speaker 1: believe them the first time. Next up, let's consider a

65
00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:18,200
Speaker 1: line from one of Angelou's most popular poems, Still I Rise.

66
00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:22,400
Speaker 1: It goes you may shoot me with your words, you

67
00:04:22,440 --> 00:04:24,599
Speaker 1: may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me

68
00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:31,000
Speaker 1: with your hatefulness, But still like air all Rise. Angelou

69
00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:34,480
Speaker 1: was no stranger to adversity. She didn't speak at all

70
00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:37,520
Speaker 1: for several years after being sexually assaulted as a child.

71
00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:41,320
Speaker 1: She was profoundly devastated by the assassinations of Martin Luther

72
00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:43,960
Speaker 1: King Junior, and Malcolm x As. She had worked with

73
00:04:44,080 --> 00:04:47,919
Speaker 1: King and been friends with Malcolm, and she struggled with

74
00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:52,400
Speaker 1: romance and money yet her story is not mired in tragedy.

75
00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:57,719
Speaker 1: Before becoming a memoirist, Angelou was a poet. Still I

76
00:04:57,839 --> 00:05:01,480
Speaker 1: Rise addresses her personal difficulties and the collective hardships of

77
00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:06,120
Speaker 1: black people, responding to them with hope and perseverance. In

78
00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:09,800
Speaker 1: the poem, she acknowledged the hard truths of history while

79
00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:15,320
Speaker 1: envisioning a bright future. Wagner Martin said her poems, particularly

80
00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:18,040
Speaker 1: the early ones, grew from songs that she had written

81
00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:21,560
Speaker 1: while she was a dancer, singer, and actress. Angelou drew

82
00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:25,359
Speaker 1: from not only American music, but African, from free forms

83
00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:29,400
Speaker 1: that were universal, and she emphasized the sounds her poems created.

84
00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:34,000
Speaker 1: In these longer poems, she's speaking for so much human consciousness,

85
00:05:34,160 --> 00:05:37,839
Speaker 1: such broad sympathy, that her personal words reach into other

86
00:05:37,880 --> 00:05:41,120
Speaker 1: people's lives, something like an anthem might. In a musical

87
00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:47,359
Speaker 1: program at church. In nineteen ninety three, Angelou became the

88
00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:49,920
Speaker 1: second person ever to read a poem at a US

89
00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:54,839
Speaker 1: presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton's first term. For the occasion,

90
00:05:54,960 --> 00:05:58,200
Speaker 1: she composed and read on the Pulse of Mourning, in

91
00:05:58,240 --> 00:06:03,920
Speaker 1: which these lines appear. History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot

92
00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:07,640
Speaker 1: be unlived, but if faced with courage need not be

93
00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:13,520
Speaker 1: lived again. The poem was tuned to the inaugural spirit

94
00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:17,800
Speaker 1: of national renewal and hope, but it was still completely Angelou.

95
00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:21,440
Speaker 1: It highlighted themes of unity, optimism, and courage that she

96
00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:26,360
Speaker 1: often imbued in her literature. While the poem itself wasn't

97
00:06:26,360 --> 00:06:29,039
Speaker 1: a fan favorite, and people praised her performance of the

98
00:06:29,040 --> 00:06:33,400
Speaker 1: poem and the inspiration it provided. By this time, Angelou

99
00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:36,280
Speaker 1: was well established as an advocate for social change and

100
00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:39,719
Speaker 1: a celebrity artist. Her recording of the poem won a

101
00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:42,440
Speaker 1: Grammy for Best Spoken Word or Non Musical Album in

102
00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:45,720
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four, and sales of her other works increased

103
00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:52,960
Speaker 1: in the wake of the inauguration. Then there's this lovely quote,

104
00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:55,719
Speaker 1: one must nurture the joy in one's life so that

105
00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:59,479
Speaker 1: it reaches full bloom. It was recorded in the book

106
00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:02,880
Speaker 1: In the Cloud The Wisdom and Spirit of Maya Angelou,

107
00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:06,280
Speaker 1: a tribute collection of Angelou's writing published after her death

108
00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:11,000
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen. When it came to living a full life,

109
00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:15,080
Speaker 1: Angelou led by example. In an interview with Angelou, a

110
00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:19,120
Speaker 1: journalist Bill Moyers emphasized that she had done almost anything

111
00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:22,520
Speaker 1: she wanted to and asked her about the price she'd

112
00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:26,720
Speaker 1: paid for that freedom. Her response was, you are only

113
00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:29,800
Speaker 1: free when you realize you belong no place. You belong

114
00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:35,640
Speaker 1: every place, no place at all. Wagner Martin said, to

115
00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:39,000
Speaker 1: read through Maya Angelou's various poem collections is to see

116
00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:41,480
Speaker 1: her development not only as a poet, but as a

117
00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:46,760
Speaker 1: human being. In the above quote, Angelou made it clear

118
00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:51,000
Speaker 1: that cultivating joy is integral to a person's happiness. She

119
00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:54,440
Speaker 1: also once said, be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud.

120
00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:59,800
Speaker 1: I've had so many rainbows in my clouds. But she

121
00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:02,800
Speaker 1: had no problem putting someone out of whatever place she

122
00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:06,880
Speaker 1: inhabited for making a racist or homophobic joke or comment.

123
00:08:07,760 --> 00:08:11,120
Speaker 1: In another interview with Winfrey, Angelou said, I believe that

124
00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:14,280
Speaker 1: a negative statement is poison, and if you allow it

125
00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:17,200
Speaker 1: to perch in your house, in your mind, in your life,

126
00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:23,200
Speaker 1: it can take you over. Wagner Martin said she created

127
00:08:23,240 --> 00:08:27,360
Speaker 1: these maxims or sayings that acknowledged the widely based life

128
00:08:27,400 --> 00:08:31,360
Speaker 1: she had lived, but she did not dwell on humanity's evils.

129
00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:37,560
Speaker 1: We'll leave you with one last quote from Angelou. This

130
00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:40,600
Speaker 1: one actually came from the greeting card line she created

131
00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:45,400
Speaker 1: with hallmark of all things it goes. A wise woman

132
00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:48,959
Speaker 1: wishes to be no one's enemy. A wise woman refuses

133
00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:56,680
Speaker 1: to be anyone's victim. Today's episode is based on the

134
00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:00,240
Speaker 1: article five Eloquent and Enduring Maya Angelou quotes House with

135
00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:03,360
Speaker 1: Works dot Com, written by Eves Jeffcote. Brain Stuff is

136
00:09:03,400 --> 00:09:06,160
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and

137
00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:09,160
Speaker 1: is produced by Tyler Plain. Four More podcasts from my

138
00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:12,640
Speaker 1: heart Radio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

139
00:09:12,640 --> 00:09:14,040
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows