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St. Cloud State University
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A rainbow visits St. Cloud
By Regina Eckes
Published:
Thursday, May 1, 2003
Media Credit: Ryan Henry
Maya Angelou visited SCSU Wednesday night, speaking to a crowd of 3,000 students and community members. Angelou spoke about her life, recited poetry and sang. Her 60-minute presentation covered topics from her childhood to how we can be metaphoric �rainbows� in the lives of others.
Almost 3,000 SCSU students and community members greeted Dr. Maya Angelou with a standing ovation as she took the stage in Halenbeck Hall Tuesday night. The last time Angelou came to SCSU was 14 years ago and for the past several years, SCSU's University Program Board (UPB) has been trying to have her come and speak again.
"Our committee wanted to bring a diverse array of speakers and we've been trying to get Maya Angelou here for a while," Amanda Hallfrisch, member of UPB, said. "We really wanted to bring her back this year and are very happy to finally get her after the past few years."
Angelou, who recently turned 75, came to SCSU as more than just a speaker. She has a life-long career as an acclaimed poet, best-selling author, educator, historian, actress, director and civil-rights activist. Besides talking about her childhood, Angelou recited several lines of poetry and sang about making the world a better place.
Maya Angelou was born in 1928 in St. Louis, Mo. under the name of Marguerite Johnson. She moved to Stamps, Ark. at the age of three along with her older brother. There they lived with her paternal grandmother and worked in the only black-owned store in the county.
Angelou's childhood has been an influential part of her life as she referred to it often. She vividly remembers learning her times-tables from her Uncle Willy and has never forgotten them. When traveling back to Stamps for her uncle's funeral years ago, she ran into a man who wanted to tell Angelou that her Uncle Willy had employed him at the store as a child and taught him as well. This man ended up becoming the first black mayor of Arkansas. Angelou reflects on her Uncle Willy as being a "rainbow in the clouds."
Rainbows were often used in her presentation as a reminder that even the worst times have to pass and things have to get better. Angelou referred to a passage from the book of Genesis in the Bible where God put a rainbow in the sky to symbolize a promise that the rain will always stop; bad times do not last forever.
Angelou discussed how we can be rainbows in other people's clouds, just as generations before us can be the rainbows in our clouds.
Angelou also encouraged people to look within their families to find their rainbow. She finds it troubling that so many young people look to "mega-stars" for inspiration and those are people who "wouldn't care if you lived or died."
"When she told you to look inside your family to find your 'rainbow in the clouds' it got me thinking about my own family and who my own 'rainbow in the cloud is,"' said Misty Kreklau, sophomore. "I thought her speech was very inspirational and overall it was pretty good."
Even though Angelou has been a public speaker now for most of her life, she was mute as a child. After living in Stamps for several years, she moved to Missouri to stay with her mother. It was there that she was raped at the age of seven by her mother's boyfriend. After telling the police and her family who the man was, he was found beaten to death. Angelou felt it was her words that killed him. As a result, she did not speak for months, even to family members.
"I was afraid my words would go out and kill anybody," Angelou explained. It was during that time her grandmother predicted Angelou would become a teacher. Her grandmother's words rang true, and now Angelou's words are used for healing, comfort and inspiration for all people.
With her poetry, singing and true words of wisdom, Angelou received a second standing ovation at the close of her performance. Even though she spoke for only a short 60 minutes, she made a point of saying how proud she was to be at the university.
"It is a great opportunity to speak at an institution of higher education, which is in itself a rainbow in the clouds. It is quite an honor," Angelou said. "I know that each of you young men and women has the possibility and the probability of becoming a rainbow in the clouds."
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