Listen to 6-year-old Emma recites ‘Still I Rise,’ a poem of inspiration, written by America’s famed female author, poet, dancer, activist, and scholar Maya Angelou. Emma is the daughter of prominent social activist, immigration consultant, host of “Straight Up” talk show, and owner of 107.1 FM radio, Mark Benschop.
Village Voice News was told apart from regular rehearsal at school, credit for Emma’s excellent performance goes to her mother, Ann. Benschop said “Emma’s mother [Ann] was instrumental behind our daughter’s performance with a strict regimen at home. Weren’t it for her, our daughter could not have done so well.”
The story behind this poem is one of defeat, survival and inspiration. According Angelou’s biography, the poem draws on a range of influences, including her personal background and the African American experience in the United States of America.
The message of liberation and survival, a consistent theme in Angelou’s work, is evident in the poem.
Angelou also drew upon the blues, gospel and spiritual songs as inspiration for the balladic patterns of the poem, utilising the “call and response” technique, references her sexuality and perhaps, because she appreciated African American oral traditions, the power of the poem becomes even more evident when recited.
As you recite the poem (below), challenge yourself not only to be as good as Emma but to also be inspired by the author and the phenomenal role she played in African American culture and USA’s experience to right historical wrongs and create a more perfect union.
Still I Rise
By Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
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.