Angelou Takes Visitor On Lyrical Journey
The rules are set down by a publicist: Don’t call her Maya; call her Dr. or Ms. Angelou. And don’t say AngeLOU - it’s AngeLOW. Read her new book (“Even the Stars Look Lonesome,” 20 short essays on subjects ranging from aging and sexuality to slavery and the healing power of art). She tires after about 25 minutes and doesn’t suffer fools easily. Be prepared to meet a formidable woman.
The hotel room door opens, and the expected austere presence is nowhere in the room. Instead, to meet Angelou - poet, playwright, author, director, producer, actress, activist, and professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. - is to be a witness to a life force that is daunting and all-embracing.
Yes, she’s imposing, physically. She’s 6 feet tall and dressed in a three-piece black tuxedo suit. But then look at her feet - bright red satin flats. Listen to her laughter. Watch the rhythms of her long expressive hands. Sit back and relax as she sips white wine and holds forth on many of the topics in her book. Just feed her a one-word cue - home, aging, marriage, friendship - and she’s off on her lyrical journey into anecdote, experience and laughter. As the stories begin, her well-known deep and measured voice softens, and the heavy crooked smile lightens.
“I like the idea of paying attention to both body and soul because it’s the only way out of the morass of ignorance that plagues the world,” says Angelou, who was in Boston last weekend to sign books and to speak at the Body & Soul conference (sponsored by Interface and New Age Journal).
“We must employ both the head and the heart. I also like talking to women about balance in their lives. We live in a world filled with data; we are exiled to data. We need to talk to each other more.”
On male and female stereotyping: “I once directed ‘Macbeth’ with an all-male cast, and an all-female cast. I had the male cast faint, fall down and break into tears. I had the female cast be tough and focused. What women must understand is that they can live their lives with clarity and discipline, and also cry and shriek. Women can do it all.”
If women ran the world?
“I was at a literary party in London, and this very British woman was talking to a group of men. She said if women ruled the world, there would be no brutality and violence. Everyone was nodding. I spoke up. I disagreed with her. I mean just look at history - the Medici women were brutal. And in our own country, the wives of the Ku Klux Klan. Someone washes those long white robes. After I spoke up, a man approached me and said, ‘Excuse me, what is your name?’ He eventually became my husband. He’d been married to Germaine Greer. Was he the love of my life? One of them. How many times have I been married? I won’t tell you. I brought all my stuff, my laughter and faithfulness, to each marriage. And I never stayed when it wasn’t working.”
On home: “A lot of single women won’t make a true home for themselves. This comes from a feeling of worthlessness. They feel they aren’t worthy of sitting down to a three-course meal, having a glass of wine and listening to music. If a man was present, then they’d feel worthy.”
On laughter: “I think women should laugh more. Laughter makes you pretty, pretty to look at. I think women should whine less. Whining tells a predator that there’s a victim in the neighborhood. That’s scary.”
On friendships: “I’ve been blessed with wonderful friendships. Molly Ivins (a syndicated columnist) is so incredible. She’s also 6 feet tall but with red hair. After she met me, she said she’d met her twin. (Writer) Jessica Mitford was another close friend. I sang to her when she was deathly ill. I sang romantic songs to her at first, and then she asked me to sing filthy songs, all of which she had taught me. If I stumbled, she’d come up out of death and give me the line.”
On getting older: “Yes, I’m going to be 70 in April,” says Angelou, sitting in a straight-back chair to relieve the tension on her bad knees when she stands up. “I just got a fax from a charity in London that wants to celebrate my 70th year. But it’s Oprah who’s going to give me my big party. (Angelou has served as spiritual mentor and surrogate mother to the talk-show host for years. Her book “The Heart of a Woman” - one of the five volumes in Angelou’s autobiography - has been chosen as one of the Oprah Book Club selections this year.) I don’t know what she’s going to do or where, but I’m looking forward to it.”