Maya Angelou

Oprah first alerted me to Maya Angelou. My days deep in motherhood with two small children always seemed frantic and busy, but come the afternoon, I would bribe my kids into sitting quietly so I could watch Oprah (and sometimes Dr Phil!)

The thing that first struck me about Maya Angelou was the obvious affinity Oprah had for her. This is someone special I thought.

And she was.

Her words had both a calmness but authority to them. Her story was heart-breaking yet she was unbroken, she was intelligent, witty and wise.

I ordered her book ‘I know why the caged bird sings’ and found inside there a soul of such depth. I devoured the book and ordered more. Her story of growing up in Stamps, Arkansas in 1928 felt like a world away from anything I knew. A whole different universe even.

Her words on Oprah covered everything from forgiveness, not seeking revenge (after 9/11) aging, what really matters, leaving a legacy – big big subjects that needed not only my full attention when she spoke, but which I would digest and ponder for weeks.

And that’s how you know you are listening to someone truly wise. When their words touch your heart and leave you with questions about yourself. Leave you with a desire to be a better person, not so quick to anger, not so quick to judge.

When looking for a place to take the quilt here in Tulsa to photograph, I researched if Maya had any history with the city. It turned out, she does – she received the Homecoming Award in 1997 at the Celebration of Books at the Rogers University Tulsa. Greenwood Rising, the black wall street history center uses her poem ‘Still, I Rise’ as an introduction to their tour and quotes from Maya Angelou are now on plaques laid on black wall street.

This city has been impacted by her work.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” by Maya Angelou. 

So early on Sunday morning, before the sun had fully risen, we headed downtown to the Greenwood district, with the plan of taking a photo of the Maya quilt in some of the iconic areas of Tulsa.

And it was only after we had done that and were heading out of the city, did we spot this mural on the side of a building. A mural that I have never seen advertised on any other websites that document Tulsa rich mural history.

And it was the perfect spot.

Quilt Info:

Size: 96″ x 74″

Number of pieces: 2,600 approx.

Number of hours to complete: 80+