Known for her beautiful words, incredible insight, endearing smile and wonderful voice, Dr. Maya Angelou will forever be remembered as one of the greats.
Developing a love of truth, standing for civil rights, enjoying life itself and recording the experience, our matriarch became an inspiration. Maya Angelou’s words, spoken, on the printed page, continue to promote self-examination, equality and friendship.
Many looked to her for not only inspiration, but as a guide to live life more beautifully and on purpose.
In the video above, one of her final interviews before her death in 2014 at 86-years-old, Dr. Maya Angelou said that in order to be the best human being you can be, you must follow one simple directive that she got from her grandmother: “Just do right.” Watch as Dr. Angelou reveals how you can never go wrong by doing what you truly believe in.
“Right may not be expedient. It may not be profitable. But it will satisfy your soul.”
Do what’s right in your heart, not what’s common.
Do what’s right for the world, not just for you.
Do what’s right in your relationship, not just to show how wrong the other person is.
Do the right thing.
Here, we end with one of her most-recited poems, Still I Rise.
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
VIDEO: Co-Director of “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise” Documentary Takes Us Behind the Scenes
https://www.facebook.com/BlackDoctor.org/videos/10154425897546194/
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
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