Why does the Caged Bird sing? (video)

Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Maya Angleou, Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez (democracynow.org); Oprah "Harpo Inc." Winfrey

"Run Joe" from Miss Calypso performed by stage songstress Maya Angelou (OWN)

"A Peace Warrior"

She really gets me! Chirp. (LAIP)

The legendary poet, playwright, and civil rights activist Dr. Maya Angelou has died at the age of 86. Born in the Jim Crow South, Angelou rose to become one of the world’s most celebrated writers. After becoming an accomplished singer and actress, she was deeply involved in the 1960s civil rights struggle, working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Encouraged by the author James Baldwin, among others, to focus on her writing, Angelou penned I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, her first of seven autobiographies. The book launched the phenomenal career for which she is known around the world as an award-winning author and people’s poet. DN looks at some of Angelou’s most celebrated poems and speeches and speak to her friend, Sonia Sanchez, the renowned writer, activist, and leader in the black arts movement. More

(Ghostboy1974.deviantart.com)

"The free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream.../ But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage/ Can seldom see though his bars of rage./ His wings are clipped and his feet are tied/ So he opens his throat to sing.../

"A caged bird stands on the grave of dreams./ His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream./ His wings are clipped, and his feet are tied/ So he opens his throat to sing.

 

"The caged bird sings with a fearful trill/ Of things unknown but longed for still/ And his tune is heard on the distant hill/ For the caged bird sings of freedom."

 

.

I know why, too! (NS46)

Activist, singer Dr. Maya Angelou (1928-2014) famously stated, "I know why the caged bird sings." I never understood quite what she meant until I found out she sang, not only in the form of the original troubadour singing but actual modern singing on stage. The caged bird was also raped as a child of 7 by her mother's boyfriend, an almost incomprehensible development in her autobiographical novel but one that comes as no surprise given how often we hear of this happening now.

Do you know why? (nettacee)

Just as a black young woman once spoke for Russia [as their own "Oprah" on Russian TV] so, too, Oprah spoke for America at one time. Not so much anymore with her failed and fading OWN Empire. Why would black women have the advantage in such predominantly white-male-run Christian Cold War empires?

It must be because we can see ourselves as contrast-reflections in others but not ourselves. It's too bright when we look at ourselves. Rabbi Jesus, the Tibetan bodhisattva, is credited with saying the same thing somewhere in that New York Times bestseller by King James: "We can see the speck of sawdust in others' eyes but not the plank in our own" (Matt 7.3).

(GS) "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (full movie adaptation of Dr. Maya Angelou's book)

• Oprah eclipsed as world's richest woman by a Russian
• VIDEO: Pete Seeger recalls the 1949 Peekskill Riot where he and Paul Robeson were attacked 
• “Sing Your Song”: Harry Belafonte on Art, Politics, Civil Rights, and his critique of Pres. Obama 
• Obama calls for U.S. military "restraint" BUT endorses "unilateral" force to [promote and/or] defend the U.S. military-industrial complex's strategic "interests." Why? Business is business, and we're in the business of war.