Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 23, 1993 TAG: 9302230233
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
A POET EVOKES THE MAGIC
Poet Maya Angelou received a standing ovation and a bouquet of pink roses Monday night before she ever uttered a word.Angelou, an author, professor, singer, actress and dancer, packed Virginia Tech's Burruss Hall in a manner usually reserved more for a rock concert than a literary figure. But to the crowd of more than 3,000 people who sat in the aisles, stood against walls and filled every chair, Angelou is more than that.
"She is a positive image to look on," said Vonya Journiette, who left Roanoke with Wanda Kasey three hours before the speech so they'd be assured of a good seat. "I think she has a real important message for all people - one of unity," said Kasey, who first read Angelou's poetry 20 years ago.
Ron Jones and Claudette Brown brought 14 students in Total Action Against Poverty's youth service to see the show.
The audience was mixed but mostly women, and the word "empowerment" was used more than once.
Months ago there would have been a smaller crowd to see Angelou, though there would have been those who could have recited her poetry word for word. But after Angelou was asked to write and recite a poem for President Clinton's inauguration, she has played to only full houses.
On stage Monday night, she was performer and teacher.
"Each and every one of us here is a miracle," she said. But to "really survive, one has to have a lot of help; one has to have been loved."
Angelou's voice is strong and deep, the kind that brings chills to unsuspecting spines.
She spoke of love and virtue, of growing and "how to get "
Our ancestors, those who came "from Mexico to find a place to house all people of all races . . . and those who came from Africa lying spoon-fashion, back to belly, have paid for each of us already," she said. "You have been loved."
During her hour-long speech she recited her own poetry and that of other black poets. She urged students to find a library and to survive.
Librarians, she said, can open doors to poets and artists. "You need to know there was someone there before you. You need to know someone was lonely before you, someone was brutalized before you, someone was fired unjustly before you . . . and yet someone has survived with passion, compassion, some humor and some style."
Angelou spoke briefly of her own life, of the years she didn't speak after she was raped as a child, after her brother was kicked to death by the rapist.
She had told her brother the rapist's name, she said. "I was certain my voice had killed him."
It was during those silent years that she read: Shakespeare, poetry, anything. Years later, when a teacher told her that she couldn't love poetry until the words swept over her lips, she started to speak.
Angelou spoke of those same years with humor and with style, strutting like a boy she knew, rolling her r's like, "Mrs. Culture Lady. We all know her. She's fat, thin, tall, always speaks in a falsetto."
Serious. Funny. Serious.
"Men and women, students, there is a world of difference between being trained and being educated," she said. "You were paid for - the true pay - not so you could get a diploma and a job and to marry a man 2 1/2 inches taller . . . that is not why we are here.
"The real reason is so serious and wonderful and honorable and that is to make this country more than it is today." She offered the crowd the greatest thing she thought she could: "The stored imagery of artists who loved you before you were born."
And when she finished speaking and bowed gracefully, elegantly, the crowd rose and clapped again.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***