I've had the privilege of attending several readings/speaking engagements by people I really, really, REALLY admire, but the one I'll remember forever? Maya Angelou.
Maya is a Presence. Maya is Brilliant, Beautiful, and Bold. And Maya is BANNED!
Well, her book is anyway. I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS is one of the most challenged books of the 21st century. The buzzwords: "graphic depiction of rape", "explicit sexual abuse", "unsuited to age group", "homosexuality", "sexual content", etc. etc. etc.
Here's what I don't get: how can a TRUE ACCOUNTING OF SOMEONE'S LIFE be banned? It's the literary equivalent of sticking your head in the sand and saying "this stuff doesn't happen". It happens. It happened to Maya and it happens to girls now.
I wasn't an African-American girl growing up in the 1930's and 40's. I was a white girl growing up in the 1970's and 80's. And you know what? I related to Maya in a way I didn't expect.
While Maya's childhood was far more difficult than my own, I understood her words because I was also a girl at the mercy of one or two not-so-very-nice grownups, a girl who grew up believing she was ugly and incompetent, a girl convinced that the only dreams she'd fulfill were small and close to earth and not so much dreams as Realistic Ambitions.
Maya is a brilliant, beautiful, bold example of first dreaming and then believing and then working your ass off. My time spent with CAGED BIRD was unforgettable and so very, very important in my own development. I learned it's ok to talk about the Darkness in our lives and, even more, to celebrate the Lightness. Maya was brave enough to do both.
Piggy-backing on Jenny's fabulous question yesterday, what aspect(s) of your life might get your memoir (if you chose to write one) banned? For me, you only need to travel back in time a few days and read the diary entries I posted on my blog for The Rejectionist's uncontest. Loving that many boys in such a short amount time should be against the law. Seriously.
6 comments:
Great post! This was so much more approachable to me than the many I've read about all the YA books out there. I'm sure they're great, but it's just not an area of interest. I can relate to this so very much. Maya is wonderful. Thanks for the beautiful words! It really brings it home when a memoir is silenced, or attempted to be.
"Loving that many boys in such a short amount of time should be against the law." - Hilarious! I almost spit my morning coffee onto the computer screen! I have lived a completely chaste life and nothing about it would be ban...wait, what? You have tapes from college? Oooooooh. Well, there's a few years that would get me banned for sure. But those were fun, fun years.
I honestly think the people complaining aren't reading the books. This book is SO IMPORTANT to young girls. They need to know that they are not alone. That someone else went through this and is THRIVING now.
Fabulous review! I just downloaded this book to my Kindle.
The diaries I kept between age 15 to 17 would definitely be banned. Teenage angst? Ha. I had some dark and scary thoughts back then and I used profanity A LOT. (Mind you, how is that any different from now?)
@#$%ing profanity would get my !@#$ing book #$%^ing banned without a bleeping doubt!
Now I should definitely read this book, after my blog on wordpress have been suspended and deleted... even though I read and reread my posts so no one would get offended, someone got... somehow it feels that gender issues are banned from discussing...
Now I should definitely read this book, after my blog on wordpress have been suspended and deleted... even though I read and reread my posts so no one would get offended, someone got... somehow it feels that gender issues are banned from discussing...
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