Maya Angelou: Learning to love my mother
World-renowned poet, author and activist Maya Angelou has written extensively about her life, starting with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969.
More than 40 years later, she is finally opening up about one of the most important and complex relationships in her life: her relationship with her mother, Vivian Baxter.
When Angelou was three years old, Baxter sent her and her brother away to be raised by their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. When Angelou returned to live with Baxter 10 years later, she refused to call her her mother, referring to her only as "Lady".
Angelou's seventh autobiography, Mom & Me & Mom, chronicles how Lady eventually became Mom. It was a long journey with many bumps along the way, but as Angelou tells Michael Maher, it is a story of the healing power of love.
Produced by Ashley Semler, camera by Chuck Tayman, editing by William McKenna
Photos courtesy Angelou Personal Collection
04 Apr 2013
- From the section Magazine