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Maya Angelou & Guy Johnson - Mother and Son Poets become themselves

From Sedge Thomson | 00:44:47
Producers: West Coast Live - Sedge Thomson

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Mother and son poets meet to talk about the courage of poetry, the pleasures of red rice and language. Funny, moving.

The mother is a poet, the son is a poet. She raised him in San Francisco, New York, later, in Egypt, Africa, Paris. She earned her way cooking creole food in a San Francisco restaurant. She found her way raising her son to learn courage, poetry, and manners. She learned how to prepare "my black boy to be raised in a white society."

The mother is the renowned poet and memoirist, Dr. Maya Angelou. The son is Guy Johnson, poet and novelist. She travels to the Bay Area from time to time to visit her son and grandchildren. In this program, we hear Guy talk about his writing, his motivation, the energy of his poetry, and the deep emotion of being a parent. Then, his mother comes on stage and she talks about the conditions of raising him as a mother of 17, her own relationships with her mother and her mother's slave antecedents. You can't learn poetry unless you have courage; you must love yourself to find your way, to be somebody; her son Guy made her who she is.

It's a joyful, funny, moving and inspiring story of parental and filial love, a memoir of America in a certain time; the influence of a mother on a child; and the importance of knowing how to cook red rice. Hide full description

The mother is a poet, the son is a poet. She raised him in San Francisco, New York, later, in Egypt, Africa, Paris. She earned her way cooking creole food in a San Francisco restaurant. She found her way raising her son to learn courage, poetry, and manners. She learned how to prepare "my black boy to be raised in a white society." The mother is the renowned poet and memoirist, Dr. Maya Angelou. The son is Guy Johnson, poet and novelist. She travels to the Bay Area from time to time to visit her son and grandchildren. In this program, we hear Guy talk about his writing, his motivation, the energy of his poetry, and the dee...
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olasunkanmi sanusi

Posted on April 17, 2008 at 11:18 AM | Permalink

Review of Maya Angelou & Guy Johnson - Mother and Son Poets become themselves

Good radio package..No holds -barred interview with an atmosphere that exhumes sincerity both on the part of the presenter and the guests.
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Jana Marshall

Posted on March 16, 2006 at 05:51 PM | Permalink

Review of Maya Angelou & Guy Johnson - Mother and Son Poets become themselves

Some people are just not gonna sit around and twiddle their thumbs. They are special - although they try to tell us they aren't. They say we all have a poet or storyteller inside. And they are right. When they take time to tell us who, how and why they are, we need to listen. Or not. We can just sit around and twiddle our thumbs...

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Dheera Sujan

Posted on January 25, 2006 at 11:15 PM | Permalink

Review of Maya Angelou & Guy Johnson - Mother and Son Poets become themselves

If there's one person who I would call a dream interview it's the poet, activist, and all out Fabulous Woman of America Dr Maya Angelou. In this programme she double bills with her son Guy Johnson. She was a teenage mother and she brought him up to appreciate poetry, to recognize that the emperor's new clothes were a sham and to love art, life, people and food. They're a fabulous pair and this programme makes for fabulous listening. Whether chatting about poetry and the emotion they feel for it, or abut the several languages they know or about how they feel about each other or about their love of good food Maya Angelou and Guy Johnson are compelling listening. The only small point I would have changed here is have the two interacting a bit more than they do - as it stands, Guy Johnson is up first and is followed by his mother and their interactions are more like interruptions in the interview. But they're so lovely together, it would have been great to give them centre stage together. I would give a lot to have these two as guests at my dinner table, but having them on my radio is almost as good. A must listen.

Broadcast History

This is drawn from an interview originally aired live in November 2004 on West Coast Live. This feature is self-contained and can be run as an "evergreen," as a Black History Month special, for Mother's Day, or in connection with literature and poetry programming.

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Live piano, Battle Hymn of Republic, at close of piece

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