READING COMPREHENSION

NAME: COLQUE AVENDAÑO TANIA

COURSE: 3RD MODULE TECHNICAL ENGLISH

MAYA ANGELOU ON COURAGE AND CREATIVITY

Marguerite Annie Johnson, better known as Maya Angelou (St. Louis, Missouri; April 4, 1928-
Winston-Salem, North Carolina; May 28, 2014), was an American writer, poet, singer, and civil
rights activist. He published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books
of poetry. She also participated, either as an actress, dancer, director or producer, in a long
list of musicals, plays, films and television programs that were relevant for more than 50 years.
She received dozens of awards and more than fifty honorary titles.1 As an author she was
especially known for her series of seven autobiographies, the first of which, I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings (1969), which describes the weight of racial segregation in his childhood and
adolescence earned him international recognition.
Often described as a "Renaissance woman" because of the many talents she developed
throughout her life, she became an author and poet after practicing the most diverse
professions, from cook, nightclub dancer or member of the cast of Porgy and Bess, a
coordinator of the Southern Conference of Christian Leadership or journalist in Egypt and
Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She took an active part in the Civil Rights
Movement and collaborated closely with such relevant figures as Martin Luther King, Jr. and
Malcolm X. In 1982 she was appointed Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest
University in Winston-Salen, North Carolina. . Later, in 1993, Angelou achieved great notoriety
when she recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill
Clinton, thus becoming the first poet to participate in a presidential inauguration since Robert
Frost in that of John F. Kennedy in 1961.
I would like to start by saying that after reading the biography of this woman whom I did not
know I must say that Marguerite Annie Johnson, better known as Maya Angelou was an
amazing woman, brave and with a great vision of human rights, politics, values and the
creativity. This woman is an inspiration for everyone, I think, since she has traveled so many
places leaving a mark and each of her books, poems, essays and publications with too much
conscientious words about reality and the fight for equal rights, making us see that with time
humanity can achieve an egalitarian world.
After reading Maya Angelou's interview for Harvard Business Review magazine where she
talks about her latest book about her mother and what she learned about her mother's
bravery, she tells us that courage is something you know. It develops from small things that
each one must propose and then propose something bigger until reaching a proposed
objective, then she tells us that we can all be brave and defend our ideals and convince the
rest of what we believe and make it come true.
In this interview he also talks about creativity and shares with us how creativity arises for his
poems, essays and books, there she tells us that each one must find that point or that focus
of space where we feel comfortable and then discover the central theme of what that one
wants to develop and work on it with patience because sometimes the time does not matter
but the quality of our creativity.
I consider it an inspirational interview and now that I have read more of her I am very intrigued
to read her books and poetry.
Currently, I think that there are many organizations that are activists about equal human
rights and even in latest time we have heard a lot about the empowerment of women, which
is about demanding an equality treatment men do the same women can because they have
the same capacity and intelligence and with this I say that I very agree with the equality and
the courage that we all should have to defend our ideals as well as our equal skills and that
we have all our equal skills with an own identity, thought and capacity.
 ANEXO
An interview with Dr. Maya Angelou, renowned author. For more, read the Life’s Work section
in the May issue of HBR.
ALISON BEARD: Welcome to the HBR Idea Cast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Alison
Beard. I’m today with one of America’s most beloved writers, Maya Angelou. Dr. Angelou,
thanks so much for joining us.
MAYA ANGELOU: My pleasure, thank you, Ms.
Beard.
ALISON BEARD: So your latest book is about your
mother. What were the most important lessons
she taught you?
MAYA ANGELOU: Well, I don’t know if I can select
one. I would say she encouraged me to develop
courage. And she taught me by being courageous herself. And after years of leaving her and, I
think, becoming courageous, I realized that one isn’t born with courage. One develops it.
And you develop it by doing small, courageous things, in the same way that one wouldn’t set
out to pick up 100 pound bag of rice. If that was one’s aim, the person would be advised to
pick up a five pound bag, and then a ten pound, and then a 20 pound, and so forth, until one
builds up enough muscle to actually pick up 100 pounds. And that’s the same way with
courage.
You develop courage by doing courageous things, small things, but things that cost you some
exertion– mental and, I suppose, spiritual exertion.
ALISON BEARD: Both your mother and your grandmother were businesswomen.
MAYA ANGELOU: Yes.
ALISON BEARD: What did they teach you about good management?
MAYA ANGELOU: Well, that’s it’s wise to be fair. It’s unwise to be a cheat. And both of them
were really [INAUDIBLE] fair. And, of course, by teaching that, they also taught me, or I learned
from them, not to lie. And that doesn’t mean tell the truth and tell everything you know. You’re
never supposed to do that. But just make sure that what you do say is the truth.
I know there are people who say, I’m brutality frank. Well, one doesn’t have to be brutal about
anything. One can tell the truth and tell it in such a way that the listener hears it and really
welcomes it. So I learned that from both of them.
ALISON BEARD: What you were just talking about sounds a lot like giving constructive
criticism. So which critics do you listen to?
MAYA ANGELOU: You know, I’ve reached an age where many of the critics I respect have gone
on to the next transition. But I’ve learned to listen to young people. And sometimes they’re my
students, here at Lake Forest, or students I encounter around the world who have something to
tell me. And I’m reaffirmed, more often than not– that is to say, I don’t learn something new
from them. But I do find that what I have found to be true is still true.
ALISON BEARD: You’ve lived around the world,
from Stamps, Arkansas, to San Francisco, later
France, Egypt, Ghana, and now North Carolina. And
you have an incredibly diverse fan base. So what’s
the key to bridging cultural, racial, and other
social divides?
MAYA ANGELOU: I just don’t buy them. I don’t buy
the divides, the man-made differences between
human beings. I don’t accept them. And so I find, if
human beings are there, I’m at home. I don’t know
what I’d do with zebras, or cockroaches, or
elephants– I do know I’d ride an elephant. But in human company, whatever the culture is, I
respect it. And I have respect for my own and would like to see my own respected.
ALISON BEARD: You’ve worked in so many different professions– — a streetcar conductor,
singer, dancer, teacher, civil rights organizer before becoming a writer. So which has been most
challenging for you and why?
MAYA ANGELOU: Well, writing poetry is the most challenging. And it’s the one I love. When I
come close to saying what I want to say, I’m over the moon. I pull out a bottle of campaign and
treat myself, even if it’s just six lines, and they come just close to what I meant to say– yes. But
until they come that close, oh my goodness. They worry me like a mosquito in the ear.
ALISON BEARD: Tell me about your writing process. When and where do you do your best
work?
MAYA ANGELOU: I keep a hotel room in my town wherever I am, although I live in a huge house,
but I don’t work in the house. I keep a hotel room. And I go to the room about 6:30 in the
morning. I have a yellow pad and Roget’s Thesaurus, and in the dictionary, and the Bible, Judeo-
Christian Bible, a yellow pad and pens, and that’s it. And I go to work. I encourage the
housekeeping and then the management never to go into my room since I leave there about 1
o’clock in the afternoon. I’ve never used the bed or anything.
After a couple of months, the management will slip a note under my abilities, and ask me,
please, Doc Angelou, let us change the bed. We think sheets may be molding. And I leave a note
it’s all right. But I feel, when I go in there, I’m going into my own place. And it’s waiting for me.
And I step away from the world, somehow, and step into a space.
ALISON BEARD: What do you do when you’re faced with writer’s block?
MAYA ANGELOU: Oh no, I don’t know that. I don’t know that at all. I just don’t call it a block.
I’m careful about the words I use because I know that my brain will remember and will tell it
back to me. And so there are times when I sit at that, bed, on that bed, with Roget’s Thesaurus,
the dictionary, and the Bible, and a playing deck of cards. I play solitaire. And sometime in a
month of writing, I might use up two or three decks of bicycle cars. Giving my “little mind”
something to do.
I got that from my grandmother, who used to say, when something would come up, and it would
surprises her she’d say sister, you know, that wasn’t even on my littlest mind. So I really thought
that there was a small mind and a large mind. And if I could occupy the small mind, I could then
go more quickly down to the big mind.
So I play solitaire. And I’ve used up a deck of Bicycle cards, really good cards, in a week and a
half. And sometimes, out of that week and a half, I’ve gotten two pages worth looking at. And
sometimes, I’ve got 20.
ALISON BEARD: You’re now 85 and still writing and teaching. So what’s the secret to staying
so productive? Where do you get your energy?
MAYA ANGELOU: Well, Mrs. Beard, you know,
energy is what we all are. It’s in this wire
connecting me to you. That’s energy. It’s all over
the place. And I just love what I’m doing. I have a
passion about what I’m doing. I owe it to it, to it. I
owe it to the muse, to the creator. So I don’t mind.
I don’t mind working. I don’t mind the struggle.
When it comes out, when it’s good, a-ha! When it comes out just right, mmm, my goodness. It’s
such a blessing.
ALISON BEARD: I’d like to wrap up asking about leadership. You’ve worked with some
exceptional political leaders, from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X to Bill Clinton and
Barack Obama. So what you think makes a leader great?
MAYA ANGELOU: A leader sees greatness in other people. He nor she can be much of a leader
if all she sees in herself.
ALISON BEARD: Given the success of Barack Obama and other African American leaders not only
in politics, but also in business and the media, how would you rate the progress of minorities
in the past few decades?
MAYA ANGELOU: Well, I think just knowing that we’re about to celebrate, hist state of the union
address, his second. Not that many white presidents have come in on the second term. And so
I think our country is healthier than we think it is. Many of the people who have the most
raucous voices are heard. But the people who are really seen and counted are those who fill the
ballot box. I think we’re in better shape than we know we are.
ALISON BEARD: Well, that’s a wonderful, optimistic note to end on. Dr. Angelou, thanks so much
for your time.
MAYA ANGELOU: Thank you.
ALISON BEARD: That was the writer Maya Angelou. Her latest book, Mom and Me and Mom is
out now. For more from this interview, pick up the May issue of Harvard Business Review or visit
us online at hbr.org.