Still I Rise - Dust Contemplations by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Maya Angelou

In light of the abhorrent recent murder of George Floyd, an inexcusably violent act in a string of senseless atrocities perpetrated against communities of color, we turn to the work of African-American poet Maya Angelou.

Born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, Angelou was a performer turned writer who worked with both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X during the civil rights movement. Her career spans and merges the realms of theater, literature, and activism.

Maya Angelou's poem "Still I Rise" provides a snapshot into her personal contemplations on injustice. We thus join her in reflection in the midst of protests sweeping the globe, primarily letting her speak for herself.

Like Dust

The image of dust invoked by Maya Angelou in "Still I Rise" carries an especially nuanced power. Prior to its mention, Angelou references the cloud of misinformation, a miasma of distorted history, written at the hands of those in power, who intentionally warp reality to fit their chosen narrative. She observes that although she and other people of color are portrayed as defiled caricatures and thus essentially trodden into the dirt under the heels or knees of oppressive forces, she absolutely refuses to be snuffed out by them. Whatever dust they grind her into becomes her new means of rising above.

But still, like dust, I'll rise
Those voices that are most stifled will nonetheless continue to speak in spite of efforts to suppress them. Angelou herself was mute for several years a child after suffering rape by her mother's partner, whom her protective relatives later killed. As a young girl, she felt responsible for all that had occurred and lost the will to speak. With the encouragement of a black female teacher educated in literature, Angelou eventually recovered her voice and went on to use it skillfully for social justice in the civil rights movement, rising like dust so fine it can be lifted up into the open expanse.

Still I Rise

Much of Angelou's carefully chosen words speak volumes to resilience in the face of horrendous injustices, which continue to plague us today. In fact, with an unrelenting sense of determination, she drew upon the collective strength of her community to triumph over tremendous adversity and traumatic life events during an era of social unrest and turmoil. Shining a beaming light of hope for the future in a time of darkness, which characterizes the atrocities of her time as much as ours, Maya Angelou concludes the poem "Still I Rise" with a set of momentous verses, through which her thunderous voice resounds.

Out of the huts
of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past
that’s rooted in pain
I rise

I'm a black ocean,
leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling
I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights
of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak
that’s wondrously clear
I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise
I rise
I rise.

Maya Angelou. "Still I Rise," And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems. 1978.