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November 6, 1981 Spelman Spotlight Distinguished Poets Visit A.U. Center Page 5 Maya Angelou Speaks at Spelman’s Sisters Chapel by Angela Jackson Reporter Maya Angelou, author of the noted I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, spoke at Sisters Chapel, October 27, 1981. Ms. Angelou has written various other autobiographical books including Gather Together in My Name, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting Merry Like Christmas andThe Heart of a Woman. Her two books of poetry are Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’Fore I Diiie and Oh Pray My Wings are Gonna Fit Me Well. She toured Europe in the musical “Porgy and Bess,” and starred in, produced, and directed "Cabaret for Freedom." “I am trying to be a poet,” said Maya Angelou, “and trying to be a poet is like trying to be a good Christian ... it is not something one accomplishes and achieves in the day and sits back and says, 'well got that done.’You work all day long to be that thing at its best and then in the evening, you check yourself out and say ‘well, I only blew it 63 times. Not bad today’ and you start all over the next day.” She stated that her goal is to "use poetry to show you what I mean about the survival of a people, of the individual, and of the race and then of a nation and of a species.” She signified literature as a means of survival for the Negro race. "Until you’ve come to grip with the literature, like the literature I am speaking of, you have not tripped.” She asserted, “You have not realized that here is a literature so real that it will not indulge the distance of continents, oceans, cultures, races and sexes. It will indulge no distance." According to Ms. Angelou, the Negro writer says, "I picture the Black experience that's what I know. I am talking about the human condition, what we can survive and what we can over come. That is what that literature speaks of." She continued saying that we will lose all that literature has given us, "if we do not honor it, if we do not relish it, if we do not nurture it and subsequently share it with our children then we deserve the future which we surely will encounter.” Maya Angelou stated that throughout the years, Blacks have had to behave in the way that society deemed they should. "Our people were obliged to laugh when we weren’t tickled and to scratch when we didn't itch. Those gestures have come down to us as Uncle Tomming,” Angelou stated. She continued, “we do not often stop to wonder, wonder how did that throat clasping in that awful pain when he said, ‘yes sir boss, you right I sho is stupid,’ so he could make enough money to feed someone in this room.” We must not forget the "Black woman that said, ‘no ma’am, Miss Anne you didn’t hurt me when you slapped me, no ma’m I ain't tender hearted; so she could come home and feed me.” Ms. Angelou said that those “playful toys” were the Black man's way of surviving. Maya Angelou stated that it is important for students to become well rounded in dividuals and better speakers. "It is important that you know of Arnold, and Edna St. Vincent Millay and T.S. Elliot before you say all you will read will be Mr. Countee Cullen and Nikki Giovanni... you must have it all.” “It is imperative that you language which is standard American English. It is im perative that you understand this language so well that you can ball up a few words in your palm and throw them against the wall and make them bounce like a rubber ball. The poem below was written by a Black poet in the 1930’s reflecting the self image of the Black race. She does not know her beauty She thinks her brown body has no glory If she could dance naked under palm trees And see her image she would know But there are no palm trees on the street She does not know her beauty She thinks her brown body has no glory If she could dance naked under And see her image she would know But there are no palm trees on the street To explain the present self images that black people have of themselves as manifested by society, Ms. Angelou quoted Mark Twain, “If you will have a person enslaved, the first thing you must do is convince yourself that the person is subhuman. The second thing you must do is convince your allies that the person is subhuman. But the third and unkindest out of all is to convince that person that he or she is subhuman." According to Maya Angelou, when the plan has been successfully carried out, “the initiator can stand away from the deed and ask the victim; why do you hate yourself so much? Why are your neighborhoods in such disrepair? Why do your children jump and fall and drop out of school? Why do you abuse and mutilate and violate and kill each other?” After the deed is done, “the victim perpetuates it and gives phrases such as, "She’s dark but she doesn’t have good hair, meaning further from the African and .... closest to the European.” Maya Angelou concluded by saying, “When a person tells another person, ‘stay Black and beautiful,’ what he or she is really saying to the listener is survive and do better than that, Thrive with some passion, some com passion, some humor, and some style!” Dr. Stewart and Pamela Scott presented Maya Angelou with the Spelman: a Centennial Celebration pictorial history book. The English Club presi dent, Angela Whitfield, presented her with flowers. Haki Madhubuti Speaks At Morehouse’s MLK Chapel by Lisha B. Brown Associate Editor Haki R. Madhubuti (Don L. Lee) opened his message with a poem dedicated to the struggle of the 60’s. His poem spoke of the "coolness" and the beauty of our people during this period. But as the poem ended, and as the heart of his message began to form, he concentrated on the present “climate of de - revolu tion” among our people. The founder of the Third World Press, the largest Black publishing company, spoke out against the quiet submission and “turning the other cheeck syn drome” which has taken over our race. Madhubuti said, “We find greater pleasure working for our enemies than working for ourselves. Blacks do not use their education to aid their people. Education for liberation is not a priority among us and still we continue to ask ‘Why is it we are not free?" During his first visit to Morehouse, he explained to an attentive audience, "We are products of a popular culture. We receive the majority of our information through the mass media which is filtered, inter preted, and diluted by someone else.” Through the process of critical thinking and analysis, Madhubuti broke down the cultural problems of our people. He explained these problems to his audience, then gave his own proposed solutions. He emphasized, "We must be bicultural. The key is to com municate within two cultures, ours and the western white world’s. But what we come from is most important.” He spoke out against the Black intellectual class, which fails to use its talents to answer perti nent questions necessary for the continuing survival of the Black race; and how Blacks allow themselves to be led by this incompetence. Madhubuti urg ed those students present to We must be bicultural. The key is to communicate within two cultures... “dislike incompetence.” "I’m sorry, but some of these instruc tors need to retire and you all know it. Do not allow these instructors to come into class and play with you,” he added. He brought out our concepts of singlemindedness, “doing our own thing;” our living for the weekend mentality; our inability to distinguish between needs and wants; and our super - egotism which makes us eager to instruct, but never willing to take instructions. Madhubuti went on to say, “Black male and female reltionshipsareat an all time low. Contrary to common beliefs children are not a priority among our people.” As a solution to this problem he stated, "We must become progressively conscious of others. Speak to your brothers and sisters, don’t cross the street to avoid them. Become more family oriented. A people who do not see their children as a priority are a doomed people.” "Study is the key,” said Madhubuti, "We must work for ourselves. College is a job. We must have a desire to work." He also encouraged his listeners to become more disciplined, learn to think critically and analytical ly, and stop accepting everything as gospel truth. Become politically active, not only within the school, but within the com munity as well. Madhubuti also expressed a desperate need for our race to become more land conscious. “By 1983 we will be a landless people if the present trend continues." The author of eleven works, including From Plan to Planet, Enemies — The Clash of Races, and Book of Life, self - confident ly told his audience, "We are the first people. We must retake what has been taken from us, but this is not an overnight process. We must first obtain a self - knowledge of ourselves. Then we can obtain a knowledge of what is in the minds and the hearts of others.”