Lives Archives - Page 6 of 9

June 1, 2014October 9, 2014

And Still I Rise–A Tribute to Maya Angelou

“People will forget what you do, and

people will forget what you say, but

people won’t forget

how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou, 1928-2014

Dr.-Maya-Angelou_Featured-Image — Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou, the literary icon who died this week, gives her high school teacher Bertha Flowers credit for helping her to speak again after five years of silence and for igniting her interest in literature. Angelou once stated that the period of silence actually allowed her to absorb her surroundings more intensely. She had been mute after being raped by her mother’s boyfriend.

The literary master was a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement and worked directly with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She authored 30 books, and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) is the first of six autobiographies.

Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008. President Obama honored her in February of 2011 with a Medal of Freedom — the highest honor a MAngelou quote civilian can receive and a “thank you for inspiring people of the world to be more compassionate, loving, and to act from their best selves,” according to a Final Tribute aired by ABC.

Maya Angelou was a poet, actress, activist and educator, and she believed that “Love is what can heal all.” Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she lived for years in Harlem, Ghana, and influenced lives all over the world–including Oprah Winfrey’s–who has long considered Angelou her mentor.

She was also a cook and loved to bring people together around a pot roast, a “Sunday Dinner” which she said is “one of the most intimate ways to be together.” She loved country music, she told Robin Roberts on Good Morning America.

Maya Angelou was the second poet in U.S. history Continue reading “And Still I Rise–A Tribute to Maya Angelou”

May 25, 2014May 26, 2014

Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind

“The mother of a child with disabilities is a powerful person. She doesn’t know what she is until it’s what she becomes.”

Sharon Draper, author of Out of My Mind

Sharon Draper’s latest book for middle graders, Out of My Mind, has remained on the New York Times Best Sellers List for more than a year because it’s one of those books that forces us to feel our world in new ways. Our heroine, Medody, is a brilliant 11 years old who’s trapped in a body that won’t allow her to talk or move independently.

“Melody represents all of us and any child who has no voice–who is different and isn’t heard,” says the author. Melody is “the voice for the voiceless.”

Born with Cerebral Palsy, her world opens when she gets a computer with a voice program that allows her to speak and share her wit with the world–for the first time.

Although Dr. Hughly advised her mother to consider sending her “away”, Melody’s caring parents make sure she enrolled in the local elementary school. However, she was always kept in “special” classes–as if she wasn’t the smartest kid in school–like she is!

With the help of ever-caring mom who “becomes more powerful than she ever knew she could be,” according to the author, Melody has been able to learn lots. Another miracle-maker of the story is neighbor and retired teacher, Violet.

“Violet Vallencia is a big hero, the example of Tough Love that pushes Melody to the max–and helps her to become what she can,” says Sharon Draper–who doesn’t Continue reading “Sharon Draper’s Out of My Mind”

May 19, 2014May 27, 2014

Carolyn Norred: Poetry, Seeing & Being

“We are each other’s harvest;

we are each other’s business;

we are each other’s magnitude and bond.”

Gwendolyn Brooks

Poet Carolyn Norred notices details. Whether a journey to the Everglades, a week with her family in Hawaii to celebrate their 50th anniversary, or a birding venture in nearby Sacajawea Park, I can often visualize the places and people she’s met along her wanders. She tells me about them or reads to me a poem she’s written.

We first met as colleagues, teaching in the Department of Language and Literature at Lower Columbia College. Soon after, she invited me to travel to Baja and kayak around the Sea of Cortez. Once fall quarter ended we flew out of Portland.

I always thought she was crazy for extending such an invite to an almost-stranger, the new hire. We’d hardly talked up until then but would take off together–both kayak-rookies: That’s how our friendship began–losing luggage, losing tickets, stranded on an island for several days because December’s not the best time to kayak in the Sea of Cortez (unless you like big waves and don’t mind taking it slow and waiting when the sea says so.)

Such ventures and her willingness to take a chance makes Carolyn the special person and poet she is.

Over the years Carolyn would tell stories about the trips we shared Continue reading “Carolyn Norred: Poetry, Seeing & Being”

April 20, 2014April 22, 2014

Listening Is an Act of Love–StoryCorps & On Being

“Dan Rather once interviewed Mother Theresa and asked her what she says when she prays to God, and she said she listens. And when he asked her what God says back, she said he listens.”

Dave Isay tells Krista Tippet, On Being April 17, 2014

I didn’t know that StoryCorps and Facebook began the same year. That’s what I learned while soaking in the tub this morning and listening to one of my favorite radio programs–On Being, also born in 2003.

My ritual is to take my computer into the steamy room, set it on the toilet, and play the 60-90 minute long conversations Krista Tippett shares with her guest. “On Being opens up the animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live?” says the website.

Some of my favorite past programs include conversations with Desmund Tutu, Parker Palmer, Joan Halifax, Joanna Macy, and Thich Naht Hanh–and lots of others poets, writers, theologians and scientists.

This most recent show features Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps. He was 21 and planning to begin medical school when sidetracked into a different life. He stumbled into story as central to well-being.

Yet he comes from a family of listeners, you might say–and students of the human condition: He had planned to join a long line of psychiatrists, and his grandma wrote the advice column–for 50 years–at The New York Post. Continue reading “Listening Is an Act of Love–StoryCorps & On Being”