Hairlooms by Michele Tapp Roseman

Author:Michele Tapp Roseman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: hairlooms;untangled;truth;living;natural;hair;beauty
Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.
Published: 2016-01-30T05:00:00+00:00

DR. MAYA ANGELOU’S HAIR STORY

Dr. Maya Angelou was a prolific, highly decorated author and poet. She received thirty honorary degrees and was the former Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University. A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, she also received the National Medal of Arts in that same year. Noted for her autobiographical I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Random House), Dr. Angelou also wrote the poem “Amazing Peace” for President George W. Bush and delivered the poem at the 2005 national Christmas tree lighting ceremony. President Barack Obama presented Dr. Angelou with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor, in 2010.

I have always liked I how look. It’s my blessing. In my family, everyone was pleased with everyone’s hair. My personal hair story invokes laughter, mostly.

I am told that many women have been influenced by my hair. In about 1952, I had received a scholarship to study dance in New York City. My son was seven years old, and I was twenty-four. I took him to New York and studied with Pearl Primus.* I worked at Metropolitan Life Insurance while I worked with Miss Primus. She was about 5’6” and she seemed to float. Oh, she was incredible. She taught African dance, and we sweated so much that my hair became very curly. So when I came to New York, I found a beautician; within two or three days, though, my hair was springing again.

*Pearl Primus was a contemporary of Katherine Dunham, who had one of the most successful dance careers in American and European theater of the twentieth century and has been called the “Matriarch and Queen Mother of Black Dance.” (November 29, 1919—October 29, 1994)

Miss Primus had her hair cut, and I eventually had my hair cut into a short Afro. Some years later—Odetta the singer** and Abbey Lincoln*** and Miriam Makeba****—we all had our hair cut. And when I returned to San Francisco, my mother and brother—whose hair was straight with a wave in it—said that they loved my hair. But a man in the street saw me and said, “Aren’t you Vivian and Clidell’s daughter?” I said, “Yes Sir.” He gave me $5 and said, “Go get something done to your head!”

**Odetta was an American singer, actress, and songwriter. This civil and human rights activist has been heralded as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement.” (December 31, 1930–December 2, 2008)

***Abbey Lincoln was a civil rights activist. Also a jazz vocalist, she wrote and performed her own compositions. (August 6, 1930–August 14, 2010)

****Miriam Makeba was a South African singer and activist. She fought against the South African system of apartheid. (March 4, 1932–November 9, 2008)

In 1960 I had been in Europe with Porgy and Bess, and I came back in a ship from Naples, Italy, to New York City. A steward took me to my room, and there was another bed in the room. She said, “You will have an older woman as a roommate.” I was so tired that I sat on the side of the bed—I had on slacks—and I fell asleep.

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