Poetry in Motion | Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

In celebration of what would be Maya Angelou's 91st birthday today, Los Angeles actress/director Nana Ghana (White Rabbit, L.A. Woman Rising, What/If) and documentary filmmaker Eric Pritchard have created a gorgeous, ethereal visual homage to the late poet/activist. With permission from the Maya Angelou Estate, Pritchard created a short film interweaving an archival reading of her 1978 poem, "Still I Rise," set to powerful images of Ghana embodying the essence of the late, great Angelou.

In this short, Ghana, who Entertainment Weekly and People Magazine put on their "Ones to Watch" list coming out of Sundance 2018, as Angelou walks up to the recent Women’s Day march of 2019 and is reminded of the past. Angelou is reminded of how far we’ve come as a society but how much more needs to be done. Through the struggles to overcome prejudice and injustice the one thing Ghana and Angelou both know is that the one thing that can’t be taken away is the ability to “hope” and dream for a better tomorrow.

This is the third poetry short in Pritchard's Poetry in Motion series, which previously put vintage readings of Charles Bukowski featuring actor/legendary skateboarder Steve Olson for "Nine Horse" and musician Deepak Krasner embodying Robinson Jeffers on the environmental poet's "Oh Lonely Rock."