The Freedom Theatre family mourns and\u00a0 takes the time to remember our great supporter Maya Angelou, who died this past week. She was\u00a0 a key adviser to the US \u00a0Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre. Maya Angelou is known throughout the world as a supporter and fighter for civil and human rights: from working for civil rights in the USA to advising The Freedom Theatre. She felt it is always important to speak your mind on human rights:<\/p>\n
“You have no idea who you will impress and inform and change and enhearten and empower. You have no idea who will take just something you said from your heart \u2026 or the way you walk or the way you dress. There\u2019s some 14-year-old who says, \u2018I like that.\u2019 You have no idea who you will inform because all of us are caged birds, have been and will be again. Caged by somebody else\u2019s ignorance. Caged because of someone else\u2019s small-mindedness. Caged because of someone else\u2019s fear, hate and sometimes, caged by our own lack of courage<\/em>.” [From Maya Angelou’s keynote speech at the Human Rights Campaign 1998].<\/p>\n Maya Angelou lent her voice to The Freedom Theatre because she thought it was a model for the future for young people to be working together to create art and change their own lives in spite of the occupation.<\/p>\n Below is the poem that inspired Maya Angelou for the title of her most important book , I know why the Caged Bird Sings<\/i>.<\/p>\n Sympathy By Paul Lawrence Dunbar written in 1899<\/b><\/p>\n I KNOW what the caged bird feels, alas! I know why the caged bird beats his wing ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Freedom Theatre family mourns and\u00a0 takes the time to remember our great supporter Maya Angelou, who died this past week. She was\u00a0 a key adviser to the US \u00a0Friends of the Jenin Freedom Theatre. Maya Angelou is known throughout the world as a supporter and fighter for civil and human rights: from working for […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thefreedomtheatre.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWhen the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
\nWhen the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
\nAnd the river flows like a stream of glass;
\nWhen the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
\nAnd the faint perfume from its chalice steals \u2014
\nI know what the caged bird feels!<\/p>\n
\nTill its blood is red on the cruel bars;
\nFor he must fly back to his perch and cling
\nWhen he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
\nAnd a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
\nAnd they pulse again with a keener sting \u2014
\nI know why he beats his wing!
\nI know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
\nWhen his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,\u2014
\nWhen he beats his bars and he would be free;
\nIt is not a carol of joy or glee,
\nBut a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
\nBut a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings \u2014
\nI know why the caged bird sings!<\/p>\n