First Lady Michelle Obama Celebrates Maya Angelou at BET Honors
Posted by Colleen Curtis on January 16, 2012 at 4:30 PM EST
First Lady Michelle Obama applauds Maya Angelou during the BET Awards ceremony at Warner Theater in Washington, D.C., Jan. 14, 2012. The First Lady delivered remark honoring Angelou, who received the lifetime achievement award. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)
Michelle Obama was at the BET Honors Saturday night in Washington D.C. to present the Literary Arts award to Maya Angelou, who the First Lady said was one of her "she-roes." Angelou, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2010, is as well known for her work as a civil rights activist as she is an artist, whose prolific body of work includes writing poetry, memoirs, novels and plays. She has also been a producer, actress, historian and filmmaker.
Mrs Obama, who told the audience at the historic Warner Theatre that she had been "spellbound" when reading her stories, asked the crowd to honor Angelou's contributions by following her example:
Maya Angelou teaches us that its not enough merely to seek greatness for ourselves. We must help others discover the greatness within themselves. We need to reach down
and reach out
and give back
and lift up others the way Maya has lifted us.
That is how we can most truly honor our friend Maya Angelou by how we live our lives
by striving every day to embody the wisdom, and generosity, and radiant love with which she has graced our world.
read:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/16/first-lady-michelle-obama-celebrates-maya-angelo-bet-honors
(Reuters/Joshua Roberts)
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