To honour legendary poet Maya Angelou on her 91 birth anniversary, Oprah Winfrey in an Instagram post shared her “most favourite” picture of the two of them with a poem dedicated to the late poet.
Although the poem is not written by Angelou, Winfrey in her post, remembering her dear friend, included a famed poem by Holland: Death is nothing at all, which reads, “I have only slipped away to the next room. I am I and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, That, we still are. Call me by my old familiar name. Speak to me in the easy way, which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.”
620.1k Likes, 10.5k Comments – Oprah (@oprah) on Instagram: “Maya would have been 91 today! This is my favorite picture of us. Even in death I feel the…”
“Even in death I feel the “unbroken continuity” of her mother-sister-friendship referenced in the Henry Scott Holland canon,” wrote Winfrey.
Maya Angelou was an acclaimed American poet, singer, storyteller, and civil rights activist. She was awarded over 50 honorary degrees before her death and also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the U.S. which was presented to her by President Barack Obama.
Angelou’s bestseller 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, brought to light the sexual assault that she faced and also explored subjects like identity, rape, racism, and literacy. In an interview with Winfrey, Angelou shared that while some places banned the book because of the rape scene, she believed that the book had saved many lives by providing a model of endurance. “I just read someplace that after a woman had read Caged Bird, she realized she wasn’t alone,” she told Winfrey.
With her work focused on black women, Angelou earned Grammys, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an NAACP Image Award and other honours.
Angelou was the first female African-American cable car conductor in San Francisco and was also the first African-American female member in the Directors Guilds of America.
Oprah, who calls Angelou as her mentor, mother/sister and friend, in a statement said, “When I first met Maya, in the ’70s, I couldn’t have guessed what the next few decades would bring—or that she would be there for me every step of the way, a wise, loving presence and the greatest mentor I’ve ever known.”