A Tribute to Maya Angelou, Musings on the USPS Commemorative Stamp

Her death stirred me. I really don't know why other than her birthday was around my birthday and I just thought her poems touched me. As some of you may know the United States Postal Service made a tribute stamp for her in 2014 and I promptly bought it. Part of me wanted to keep it as a collectible but I ended up using it. And now I am looking at an empty collectible stamp book and I don't have the nerve to throw it away unless I do something to remember it by. So I'm writing a blog about it.

This is what the stamp looked like--

This is the whole page--

And finally, the back said this--

MAYA ANGELOU

Author, poet, actress, and champion of civil rights Dr. Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was one of the most dynamic voices in all of 20th-century American literature. The book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiographical account of her childhood, gained wide acclaim for its vivid depiction of African-American life in the South.

Published in 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings established Dr. Angelou as a literary figure and opened the field of autobiography to women more generally. In the book, whose title is taken from a line in the poem "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar, she unflinchingly tells the story of her tumultuous early life in the South. The first of seven autobiographical volumes she wrote, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings became a best seller.

As her career progressed, the pioneering author displayed extraordinary versatility. In the 1970s alone, she released the Pulitzer Prize-nominated poetry collection Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Waiter 'Fore I Diiie, wrote the screenplay for the film Georgia, Georgia, received a Tony Award nomination for her role in the play Look Away, and played the role of Kunta Kinte's grandmother in the acclaimed television miniseries Roots.

In the decades that followed, she continued to write and lecture around the country. At President Bill Clinton's inauguration in January 1993, she recited "On The Pulse of Morning," a poem she wrote for the event. Seen on television by millions, the stirring recitation further elevated her status as an American icon. The performance won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. Dr. Angelou also received Best Spoken Word Album Grammy Awards for Phenomenal Woman in 1995 and A Song Flung Up to Heaven in 2002.

Dr. Angelou received the National Medal of Arts in 2000, and in 2011, at a ceremony in the White House, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She continued to tour, speak, write, and teach until the end of her life. Over the course of her career, Dr. Angelou was awarded more than 50 honorary degrees, released several books of essays and poetry, and had a profound influence on American culture.

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