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Angelou once said that it was her goal in writing to "write so well that a person is 30 or 40 pages in a book of mine...before she realizes she's reading." As a reader, I say she met this goal. Her best known book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is her autobiography from age 7 to 16 and depicts life in the Jim Crow South as well as the personal horrors she endured. I first read it in middle school and it remains today one of the books that has influenced me the most. The author of staggering beautiful poetry as well as a dancer and singer, Angelou was also an advocate of justice, education, and equality who worked alongside Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today, Angelou flies away from us but leaves her work as guidance for our own flight. I rejoice for the blessings the world received from her life and take comfort in the words she leaves us. Maya Angelou, you opened so many cages - may you now sing to us all from the skies. And may we all remember her by continuing to pay it forward to others with our words, actions, and time.
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CNN posted a beautiful obituary of Maya Angelou. Read it here.