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Luella May

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THIRTY SECOND EDITION - WOMEN OF COURAGE
6/12/2007 12:09:46 AM

 

John Elliott and Luella May Welcome You to the Thirty Second Edition of

Women of Courage

Each week we will honor a woman that has truly made a difference by her contributions, courage, love, and selflessness. Women honored will be chosen from inside AdlandPro, outside AdlandPro, living in the present, and yes, we will not forget those heroines that paved the way for the freedoms we now enjoy.   We will honor women who have shown tremendous courage and fortitude against all odds.

Assisting us in coordinating these awards are four outstanding ladies who are Women of Courage in their own right.

Presenting:

Carla Cash
http://community.adlandpro.com/go/245569/default.aspx

Veronica Davidson
http://community.adlandpro.com/go/vdavidson1972/default.aspx 

Joyce Hyde
http://community.adlandpro.com/go/031849/default.aspx

Pauline Raina           http://community.adlandpro.com/go/301079/default.aspx

Aparna Ganguli         http://community.adlandpro.com/go/blukiwi/default.aspx

Geketa Holman        http://community.adlandpro.com/go/313726/default.aspx

Our Sweethearts of Courage

Shirley Caron http://community.adlandpro.com/go/scaronpoet2005/default.aspx

Michael Caron        http://community.adlandpro.com/go/192260/default.aspx

And Adlands very own man of Courage

John Partington http://community.adlandpro.com/go/114695/default.aspx

We are proud to introduce our new Team Member:

Terry Gorley
http://community.adlandpro.com/go/169711/default.aspx

WE PRESENT TO YOU OUR THIRTY SECOND

WOMAN OF COURAGE 

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. In 1931, when she was three years old, her parents divorced and she and her 4-year old brother, Bailey, were sent alone, by train, to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. While living with her grandmother, Maya participated in a wide variety of dance classes including tap, jazz, foxtrot, and salsa. After four years in Stamps, the children returned to their mother's care. At age eight, Maya confessed that her mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freemen, had sexually abused her, and Maya's uncles beat the man to death. Horrified by the outcome, she became mute, believing, as she has stated, that "the power of her words led to someone's death." She remained nearly mute for another five years, at which point her mother sent the children to live with their grandmother once again. Maya credits a close friend in Stamps, Mrs. Flowers, for helping her "refind her voice". She began to speak again at age 13. During one of her first bouts of activism, Maya persisted at age 15 in becoming the first black person hired on the San Francisco streetcars.

In 1940, while spending the summer with her father in the Los Angeles area, Maya was assaulted by her father's live-in girlfriend, which led to her running away from home and spending a month as a resident of a junk yard that housed other homeless children. She finally called her mother and was sent a ticket back home to San Francisco, but her month of homelessness had a profound effect on her way of looking at the world. As she says in p. 254 of Caged Bird, "After a month my thinking processes had so changed that I was hardly recognizable to myself. The unquestioning acceptance of my peers had dislodged the familiar insecurity...After hunting down unbroken bottles and selling them with a white girl from Missouri, a Mexican girl from Los Angeles and a Black girl from Oklahoma, I was never again to sense myself so solidly outside the pale of the human race. The lack of criticism evidenced by our ad hoc community influenced me, and set a tone of tolerance in my life."

Maya became pregnant at the age of 16 and gave birth to her son, Guy Raphael Johnson, who also became a poet later in life. To support herself, she sang, with an affected Caribbean accent, at Enrico Banducci's famed Purple Onion San Francisco nightclub. During this phase of her career she released a record album on the Liberty Record label entitled 'Miss Calypso.' It has since become a highly sought-after collectible among fans of record albums by celebrities.

Maya wrote the screenplay and score for the film Georgia in 1971; the screenplay was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for Look Away (her debut role), and an Emmy for her role in the 1977 miniseries Roots. In 1976 she directed an episode of the award-winning television anthology series, "Visions." She was the first African-American woman admitted to the Directors Guild of America. In 1998 she directed the feature film, Down in the Delta, starring Alfre Woodard. She was also on the popular children's television show, Sesame Street. She also appeared in Tyler Perry's "Madea's Family Reunion" (2006).

Maya Angelou has been honored by numerous academic institutions throughout her career. She has been awarded a fellowship by Yale University, and also served as a Rockefeller Foundation Scholar in Italy. Maya has taught at the University of Ghana, Radford University, University of Kansas, and at Wake Forest University, where she holds a lifetime chair as the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of American Studies. For several years she has delivered an opening address to the incoming freshman class of Duke University. Although Maya has, in her later career, received several honorary doctorates, she never received a college education.

Outside of academia, Maya has achieved recognition for her poetry from bodies honoring achievement in music and theater. In 1993, she won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for On the Pulse of Morning. In 2005, Maya was honored by Oprah Winfrey at her "Legends Ball" along with 25 other African-American women whom Oprah considered inspirational.

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Thomas Richmond

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Re: THIRTY SECOND EDITION - WOMEN OF COURAGE
6/12/2007 12:31:10 AM

Wow, John and Luella, Maya what a legend in her own time, my family are very influencial in the intertainment business and my uncle and 3 close cousins of mine work for disney and burbank studios i was often brought up around celebritys, to me there my friends but with more money and a bigger fan club, lol. Anyway Maya impressed me with that movie Georgia as i reember watching her presentaion of that award on our local TV. Thank you for that post, oh and she's a great speaker too, great storys! Thank you again.

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Linda Harvey

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Re:Maya Angelou
6/12/2007 12:42:31 AM
WOMEN OF COURAGE » THIRTY SECOND EDITION - Maya Angelou Awesome !
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Rinna Rani

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Re: THIRTY SECOND EDITION - WOMEN OF COURAGE
6/12/2007 1:22:38 AM
Dear John & Luella,
Hello my dear friends.  Hope you are fine & having an amazing day.  Hope the week has been gracious to you in many many ways.

Thank you for commemorating an outstanding lady who made the 32nd Edition of Woman of Courage, Maya Angelou.

Alrite, cat is out of the bag.  I don't her at all until I read your amazing write up and yes, she truly deserves this title.  She had gone through a hard life to achieve her dreams and she finally reached & achieved what she wanted.

I am happy to say that it was a true honour reading her story and hope that a lot of people will be inspired with her.  She truly potrays an amazing calm attitude in a wild storm and she embraced everything like it was nothing.  A true lady that is charasmatic, my hats off to her.

And a big hugable kissable warm welcome to TERRY GORLEY.... Hello beautiful lady, finally, we get to see you here.  It will be amazing with your presence.  You are special in your own way.

Love,
Rina
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Pauline Raina

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Re: THIRTY SECOND EDITION - WOMEN OF COURAGE
6/12/2007 3:57:05 AM
Luella, John and Team,

First of all , WELCOME Terry, so happy to have you in our team.

You done go do it again !!!!!:-) Awesome, Awesome, is all I can say !!! Thank you for bringing her into focus for us to learn from her life and be inspired. She is one of my favourites. Heres my all time favourite...one so close to my heart !

Christians - By Maya Angelou

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not shouting "I'm clean livin'."
I'm whispering "I was lost,
Now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak
And need His strength to carry on.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
And need God to clean my mess.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible
But, God believes I am worth it.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.

When I say... "I am a Christian"
I'm not holier than thou,
I'm just a simple sinner
Who received God's good grace, somehow!

             ************************


grace n peace to you all !

Pauline R

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