From skimping, pimping and cable-car driving to reciting her poetry at a presidential inauguration, Maya Angelou is not considered a mere success story. She is said to be a Renaissance woman, and she's coming to Auburn.
She did not champion civil rights to the degree of Martin Luther King Jr., and she was not as militant as Malcolm X, but she did, to some extent, work with them.
Angelou represented another side of civil rights: the arts. Her works acted to legitimize the black woman herself as an artist, as someone capable of being the central figure and not a corollary.
To precede her arrival Nov. 8, the College of Liberal Arts will present a Renaissance-style compilation of its own with "Angelou and the Arts."
The theatre and art departments will display performances of their own respective art forms at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art Oct. 29 at 4 p.m.
There will be a presentation by the students in the intermediate I dance techniques class, a performance by the Mosaic Theatre Company and a juried art exhibit orchestrated by students in the professional practices class.
"It's a special event in her honor, since she'll be visiting campus on Nov. 8," said Adrienne Wilson, associate professor in the theatre department.
Wilson said her students in the intermediate I dance class will be performing a "structured-improvisational" dance outside of the theatre based off of an excerpt from Angelou's book, "Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas."
The piece will feature dance forms popular from the late 1940s to mid 1950s and before.
"We had a little history lesson about the rhumba, the tango, the jitterbug, the Suzie-Q, trucking, snake-hips, conga, Charleston, cha cha-cha," Wilson said laughing.
The Mosaic Theatre Company will perform four pieces, two of which were created specifically for the event.
The company held its first auditions last February.
"We are in our inaugural season," said Heather May, associate professor of theatre and artistic director of the MTC.
"It addresses a variety of issues," May said, describing the company's performance. "I would say, again, around diversity, but we take two of her poems -- so we take 'Still I Rise' and 'These Yet to be United States,' as sort of the foundation for what we're doing. For us, we really do think of diversity, pretty much, in its widest sense. The two that aren't Angelou's poems are explicitly about kind of dealing with a racist incident in the classroom space."
The professional practices class, directed by Barb Bondy, associate professor of art, will present "Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Woman: A Juried Student Exhibition of Works on Paper."
"I decided to try a real-life learning experience for the class, in addition to what they would normally gain from the class," Bondy said. "The plan was to try a project-driven approach to learning. So, instead of talking about a juried show, which is a competitive exhibition opportunity, we decided to conduct one."
The artwork that will be in the show is from students in and outside of Auburn.
"They put out a call in the Southeastern U.S. to undergraduate students, who rarely get an opportunity to be in a competitive situation," Bondy said. "They're offering professional development to students just like them."
"Angelou and the Arts" and reception Oct. 29 are free. Angelou's Nov. 8 lecture is sold out, but there will be a drawing at "Angelou and the Arts" for a chance to win tickets. More information can be found at Auburn.edu/WomensLeadership.
*Editor's note: In the original publication of this article, Heather May was misquoted. Her quote has been corrected and should read, "For us, we really do think of diversity, pretty much, in its widest sense."
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