MAYA ANGELOU'S INAUGURAL POEM: AN INCLUSION & DIVERSITY ACTIVITY

Maya Angelou, who passed away in 2014, was a warrior for equality, tolerance and peace. One way to honor her work is to use her poetry to more deeply understand the cultural and historic legacies that perpetuate racial inequity.

45 MINUTE INCLUSION & DIVERSITY ACTIVITY: THE ROCK, RIVER, AND TREE: DEEPENING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HISTORY, IDENTITY, AND CULTURE.

An exercise from World Trust's racial equity learning module Understanding the System of Racial Inequity explores Dr. Angelou's famous poem "On the Pulse of the Morning." The poem eloquently and boldly names America’s multicultural ‘rocks, rivers, and trees.’

Participants watch a video of Dr. Angelou reciting the poem at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993.   Participants share their own ‘rocks, rivers, and trees’ in an effort to understand how the System of Inequity has been woven throughout history.The exercise is part of a comprehensive module that explains and explores systemic racial inequity using multi-media.