Leeway Foundation Screening: MAYA ANGELOU AND STILL I RISE

by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

The Leeway Foundation​ presented a film event at the Community College of Philadelphia​ which featured the documentary  MAYA ANGELOU AND STILL I RISE by filmmakers Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack. Featuring interviews with Dr. Angelou, Oprah Winfrey, Common, President Bill Clinton and rightful President Hillary Clinton.

What a full and inspiring life Dr. Maya Angelou​ lead as a singer, dancer, activist, poet, writer and director. The doc originally aired on PBS a month or so ago, but I’m so glad I got to see it on a bigger screen in the company of others who also felt the power and love this woman gave to the world.

So much about Angelou’s young life I didn’t know, her rape, resulting in her being mute for 5 years, that she danced at a club to make a living after having a child out of wedlock at the age of 16; that she married not one, but two white men, and made Tupac cry.

But of all the stories the one I like the best is the grace Dr. Angelou exhibited when she agreed to present Pearl Baily with her Liftetime Achievement Award when many years prior, Baily had done her so wrong, when she could have been a mentor in Angelou’s early career.

The event was followed by conversation with Philadelphia artists Ursula Rucker poet, activist, and recording artist. Andrea Walls writer and poet. Moderated by  Pia Deas creator of Contemporary Black Canvas and professor of African American Literature at Lincoln University all three spoke about the impact of Dr. Angelou’s life and what it means to create a spiritual and moral grounding that honors the blending of artist-activist roles.

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