Maya Angelou has died at age 86. Here is a lovely tribute. [Dlisted]
Kate Hudson‘s casual style is worth tracking down. [LaineyGossip]
Jonah Hill has a cool Morgan Freeman story. [Pajiba]
Nicki Minaj is back to wearing fug outfits. [Go Fug Yourself]
50 Cent threw a worse pitch than Carly Rae Jepsen. [Buzzfeed]
Christiano Ronaldo rips off his shirt in victory. [A Socialite Life]
Cher Lloyd promotes her new album in New York. [Moe Jackson]
Eliza Doolittle does a bikini on a Miami beach. [The Blemish]
Zayn Malik & Louis Tomlinson lit up joints on camera. [Starcasm]
Bill Murray crashed a bachelor party & gave marriage advice. [CDAN]
Kingston Rossdale looks so much like his father. [Celebrity Baby Scoop]
Bruce Willis & Emma Heming introduce their new baby. [ICYDK]
Ashley Greene still grabs some paparazzi attention. [Popoholic]
Miley Cyrus covered herself up for the World Music Awards. [Wonderwall]
Photos courtesy of WENN
What a life Maya Angelou lived! What a legacy she has left behind! Amazing! RIP
Oh. My immediate sentiments were not quite as uplifting; thanks for turning me around. 🙂
*secretly shakes fist at the heavens*
Thank you Maya Angelou for all the beautiful words you shared with us. You made us better through your prose.
Rest in Peace.
Amen
Yes, yes, yes. She was more than just talent, she was such a beautiful soul.
I am so sad to hear this. What an incredible, dignified, magnificent woman.
Beautifully said, thank you. She was so inspiring, such an incredible woman. I am very sad today.
Agree. She is gone but not her light and her legacy. We can honor that with one less act of inhumanity, one less Trayvon Martin, one less Matthew Shepherd, one less hate filled rant and one less kick to someone that is down. One act multiplied by each of us will keep her spirit alive.
beautifully said.
May she be at peace and rest in peace. And may we never forget the large legacy she has left behind.
”The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.”
RIP.
“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”.
We have lost greatness.
I think of everything I have ever read from her, this poem has stuck with me the most.
The sun has come.
The mist has gone.
We see in the distance…
our long way home.
I was always yours to have.
You were always mine.
We have loved each other in and out of time.
When the first stone looked up at the blazing sun
and the first tree struggled up from the forest floor
I had always loved you more.
You freed your braids…
gave your hair to the breeze.
It hummed like a hive of honey bees.
I reached in the mass for the sweet honey comb there….
Mmmm…God how I love your hair.
You saw me bludgeoned by circumstance.
Lost, injured, hurt by chance.
I screamed to the heavens….loudly screamed….
Trying to change our nightmares into dreams…
The sun has come.
The mist has gone.
We see in the distance our long way home.
I was always yours to have.
You were always mine.
We have loved each other in and out
in and out
in and out
of time.
“We see in the distance our long way home.” – God how that cuts me.
RIP Maya Angelou – what an inspiration you are and will always be.
Thank you so much for sharing her work…it is so powerful. Sigh. What she shared with the world is to enormous to verbalize.
Agreed
@Kiddo, my favorite. (My village welcomes you with open arms.)
Baruch Dayan haEmet.
(What a Jew says when they hear about a death)
I need to go and figure out a way to pay tribute to this monumental woman.
*pauses for a moment of silence*
What does it mean ? In Islam we say
Inna lil LLah wa inna lil LLah rajiroun
We are but God’s, and to Him we shall return
She was indeed a great Soul.
@ Lady Slippers and dahlianoir, thank you for sharing your customs, they are lovely indeed.
A’ameen
It means, “Blessed is the True Judge.”
It’s a form of greeting when a death occurs.
Beautiful.
Thank you. Very beautiful.
lovely and fitting.
Rest in Power Dr Maya Angelou
•All•
I tried to find a simple explanation and I’ve linked one below. To sum it up, it’s a way to honour God even in the darkest times. We also have a mourning prayer (Mourner’s Kaddish) in Aramaic that reaffirms our faith in God.
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Special_Events/Bad_News/bad_news.html
Here’s another explanation — it’s a good one too.
http://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2012/04/judge-of-beginnings-middles-and-endings.html
•dalianoir•
Shalom Aleichem (peace be upon you) and Todah Robah (thank you very much) for sharing your traditions as well. Very much in the spirit of the great woman that passed into the hands of God.
•BooBooLaRue•
You are so very welcome.
•NAS•
I heard you singing your amen. Did you? If so, may I join in? I love to sing.
(FYI to word nerds: amen means ‘I agree’ in Hebrew)
•BW•
Fellow tribe member?
This is simply beautiful.
I first read her book ” I know why the caged bird sings” when I was in 5th grade as a class assignment. Although I had not been raped, I felt kindred to Angelou in some way. Maybe it was her sorrow that I really connected to and the, metaphorically speaking, I felt that I didn’t have a voice either as a kid. RIP Angelou, you will be missed.
I’ve always been moved by her story of her rape. The fact that her family (apparently) killed the man after she named her attacker, and that she stopped speaking because she thought her voice had killed him. The story is filled with horror, but I’m moved by the teacher who challenged her to speak again by telling her she must not love reading, or she would read aloud. Maya said she would hide under her porch to make herself begin speaking. What a sensitive soul.
Yes–her rapist was found by the police, outside a building, beaten to death. She thinks that her uncles did it, as her grandmother had all of the cops in her pocket.
I read ‘I know why the caged bird sings’ a few years ago, and one of my favorite passages was during the graduation ceremony for the seniors–where the white superintendent (or someone) came in, during their graduation to try and get them to vote for him to be the the superintendent for all of the schools in the area (or something like that)–and to get them to do that, he said that he was going to get them more athletic equipment (for the boys), and more classes in home ec (for the girls)—how she expressed the thoughts and feelings of every single black person in that room, to be only valued for their contributions to sports and menial labor was so beautiful.
I love her, and I’m grateful for the close friendship she had with Oprah which allowed her many episodes on the show.
She was gifted at so many things, but her greatest talent was her ability to truly live life to its fullest.
Well put.
This is sad news. Maya was a great poet. I was a fan. At least she lived a long and fulfilled life.
Also, I think Maya deserved a post on her own…not with links. It would be weird to comment on One Direction or Miley in the same post. IMO.
Agreed. Rest in peace, Maya, and thank you.
I agree. This amazing woman’s death is a loss to the world. If there’s been anything deserving of its own post, this is it.
Yes her own post indeed. WORD.
I’m with Word.
kasxyz’s comments aside, if there is one phrase that I could have stricken from this language it would ‘race card’. Not even ‘gluten free’ elicits such a visceral reaction from me. Eh, I’m not going to muddy this post with any more of this.
Yes.
I say this with love CB: I expected more in terms of Dr. Angelou getting a post of her own. I thank you otherwise for providing this wonderful forum. Thank you Dr. Angelou for inspiring me. I love message “I know why a caged bird sings. Not because it has the answers but because it has a song.” I think of those words everytime I write and become afraid. Afraid of self-expression and judgment thereafter. The words tell me the quality matters only in that I am true to myself and say what is felt genuinely. And I am able to love everything I write and no one can take that from me.
Oh no, what a loss. (But also, what a wonderful legacy.)
She was on my bucket list of cool people I wanted to meet in high school. I never got the chance, and (shamefully) I haven’t read or thought about her in long time. I will actuallygo buy that book today.
Rip great lady.
One of the highlights of my life was meeting her in college. I was part of a university organization that brought her to our school to speak. I met her and got to introduce her on stage. She was a beautiful soul. RIP.
What an amazing opportunity for you!
How wonderful!
that’s amazing! one of the highlights of my college experience was seeing her speak at my college (rutgers). i didn’t get to meet her, but even being a few rows away from her was a very powerful experience.
“The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them”. -Maya Angelou
I think she showed us she was a wonderful human being. RIP
+ 1, what an amazing woman.
+a few more. *sobs*
+2 – RIP from me, too.
Ain’t that the truth. So many times I have dismissed my first impressions and visceral responses to people, only for it to be reinforced with more consequences later. She was one smart woman.
And always to my detriment too.
Absolutely. I have never been so burned as the times when I have given somebody a second chance to do wrong. Listen to that little voice!
Absolutely! She is a great soul.
It is a huge loss for this world. May her soul rest in peace.
Rest in Peace courageous, courageous soul. You freed many a tortured spirit by your actions, your words, your example . . .
She once spoke at my university, and I’m so glad that I took the chance to attend. She possessed such a tremendous presence and reservoir of strength. She meant so much to me as a black girl growing up in the south, clamoring for self-expression. She made the world a bigger place. She will be dearly missed.
Thanks for soothing me.
Thanks for schooling me.
You. Are. Remarkable.
Her poems provided me light during some of my darkest hours.
Angelou was a woman who knew her worth, the value of women as a whole, and her work will always be relevant.
Humanity lost a beautiful soul but it gives me great comfort knowing decades from now, people will still have the pleasure of getting to know her through her writing.
RIP.
That was beautifully expressed.
I saw her speak in Toronto in my mid-twenties and it’s still one of the highlights of my life. RIP.
She will be missed. Great human being.
What a titan of a woman! One of the greatest that ever did it went home to glory… Seriosly what a Life well lived!
A titan indeed. Rest well Dr. Angelou, rest well.
She was grace, class and courage personified. Rest in peace dear lady.
Maya’s life and contributions trump most of the silliness being otherwise reported ad nauseum. She is and will always be a national treasure. Bless her.
This news breaks my heart. I carried this prayer with me for many years when I was in the military, tucked into my wallet; there to lift me up at times and also in the hope that if something unfortunate happened, someone might find it and read it to comfort me in my last hours. Thank you and RIP, Ms. Angelou.
Father, Mother, God,
Thank you for your presence
during the hard and mean days.
For then we have you to lean upon.
Thank you for your presence
during the bright and sunny days,
for then we can share that which we have
with those who have less.
And thank you for your presence
during the Holy Days, for then we are able
to celebrate you and our families
and our friends.
For those who have no voice,
we ask you to speak.
For those who feel unworthy,
we ask you to pour your love out
in waterfalls of tenderness.
For those who live in pain,
we ask you to bathe them
in the river of your healing.
For those who are lonely, we ask
you to keep them company.
For those who are depressed,
we ask you to shower upon them
the light of hope.
Dear Creator, You, the borderless
sea of substance, we ask you to give to all the
world that which we need most—Peace.
Beautiful poem, thank you for sharing.
One of my favorites, “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”
Although we have never met, I will miss her greatly. Many, many thanks to the Great Spirit known as Maya Angelou
Wonderful, thank you.
My lady, you were one of the best! R.I.P.
Fantastic lady!! RIP .Such an amazing writer, woman, persona…
Awww. That sucks.
Safe travels, Maya. Thank you for everything.
She had a beautiful soul and presence . Her ability to forgive is what touched me the most.
Oprah is going be so depressed.
I think Fiona Apple is huddled in a corner right now–more so.
That’s the first thing I thought of when I heard of the passing. Oprah has lost a very dear and treasured friend. Say what you want about Oprah…but she does
surround herself with very enriching friendships.
There are the Goops of the world (there are millions of Goops, they just aren’t all in the movies) and then there is Maya Angelou, a beautiful, strong, brilliant force like no other. Never to be forgotten, forever loved.
I didn’t want to put this observation in a comment about the passing of the great Ms Angelou, but the Kate Hudson outfit is kind of fug in my opinion but she has the body to pull it off. A lot of women don’t have her body and I think would end up looking pretty trashy in an outfit like hers.
Already miss her. Hate to lose someone that’s given us so much! RIP!
“I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.”
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
My favorite–>”If you always try to be normal, you’ll never know how amazing you can be.”
Thank You & RIP Maya Angelou
I love these.
We were lucky to have known her through her words.
No words – just silence – RIP Maya
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
A Phenomenal Woman in every sense of the word. R.I.P.
You don’t want to know how many people I’ve encountered who hadn’t heard of her. Got a text message from one of my sisters saying the same thing.
REALLY?
You have never heard of Maya Angelou?
‘And still I rise’ Maya Angelou?
Disgraceful.
All God’s children need running shoes now because I’m coming for your ignorant asses.
These comments are amazing. You gave so much and touched so many. Rest in Peace Maya.
I’m ignorant here. I only new of Ms. Angelou by her many trips to the Oprah show and I’ve never really looked too much into her life and what an inspiration she was until today. Needless to say, I have just ordered two books written by this amazing woman so that I can educate myself a little. Perhaps it’s because I’m Canadian and while we pay attention to these things, she is the USA’s national treasure. Nonetheless, I am ignorant no longer!
•Happy•
At one time or another — we all were ignorant. No shame there. Read some of her quotes, her power and wisdom flow through even these little snippets.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/maya_angelou.html
I loved my friend
She went away from me
There’s nothing more to say
The poem ends,
Soft as it began–
I loved my friend.
This Langston Hughes poem (I changed he to she) expresses how I felt about Maya Angelou. She felt like an old friend and the loss is terrible.
I am forever grateful that I had the pleasure of meeting her twice, once when she spoke at my son’s school fundraiser and later at a corporate event of a former client.
A truly great women, great poet and a great loss.
A great lady has left us, but her legacy lives on. RIP.
What an amazing woman. And, some food for thought.
When Maya was younger — twenties, etc. — she was not a paragon of morality. We’d probably have torn her a new one if she was famous “now” during that period of her life. A reminder that wonderful people have their pasts, too — and when we tear everyone a new one for mis-steps….we may be discouraging the next great talent. Would Maya have made it if we examined and judged every last bit about her life the way we do public figures now? Would she have had the conviction to “keep on rising” if we were cutting her down at every pass the way we do celebrities (and, TBH, acquaintances on FB, et al…) now? I wonder….
RIP Maya – I loved all of you — every last bit.
When Great Trees Fall
Maya Angelou
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.
When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.
When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.
Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.
And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.
I loved her poetry.
“The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them” – Maya Angelou
TRUE WORDS. RIP, Maya!
She was an amazing woman and lived an amazing life and will affect generations to come with her words. Godspeed.