GLIDE President & CEO Dr. Gina speaks at the Maya Angelou statue unveiling outside
                                                            the Main SF Public Library

On Thursday September 19th, GLIDE’s CEO spoke and Glide Ensemble performed at the SF Library’s unveiling of their new Maya Angelou statue. Glide Memorial was Maya Angelou’s church, and it was wonderful to see her memory celebrated. 

The event opened with the announcements: “This is the first Black woman to be honored with a statue in San Francisco,” and the audience filled the air with cheers and shouts of, “It’s about time!” and “Not the last!” 

The struggle to get a Black woman’s statue erected in SF coincided with the George Floyd protests and the nation’s dismantling of Confederate monuments.  Even when the statue design was approved, the city temporarily withdrew the approval because they didn’t understand the nontraditional design, in the shape of a book rather than a body.  (Eventually the approval was reinstated, with apologies to the artist). 

         Maya Angelou sculptur Lava Thomas with GLIDE President & CEO Dr. Gina Fromer

The sculptor, the talented Lava Thomas, did not elude directly to the controversy in her remarks in the unveiling, but did explain the deeper logic of her artistic decision, “A writer IS his or her books.” In a world that often objectifies women while underestimating their intelligence, it’s so symbolically meaningful to see a woman’s intellectual achievements celebrated in preference to her physical form. 

Glide Ensemble chose to honor the struggle to get the statue erected with the amazing song, Long Way To Go (I’ve Come a Long Way), a song that simultaneously celebrates progress and acknowledges the road ahead. Our President & CEO Dr. Gina Fromer shared the Maya Angelou quote, “Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” And indeed, the light of Maya Angelou’s spirit is not dimmed by her passing, but shines brighter than ever. 

                                     GLIDE Ensemble performing prior to the statue unveiling

Now everyone who passes through the library doors will be welcomed by the sentiment engraved on the back of the statue, “Information helps you to see that you’re not alone. That there’s somebody in Mississippi and somebody in Tokyo who all have wept, who’ve all longed and lost, who’ve all been happy. So the library helps you to see, not only that you are not alone, but that you’re not really any different from everyone else. There may be details that are different, but a human being is a human being.”

Three young poets from Youth Speaks performed a moving poem which included the lines, “She [Maya] taught me my body is a temple. /  My body is a temple, now a statue forever to be remembered. /  We are all just poems in the flesh.” They had a Maya Angelou quote, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you,” on the back of their t-shirts.

At one point in their performance, they turned around in synchronized choreography to make sure the audience read the quote, literally making their body’s movements part of the poem. Just as Maya Angelou’s body became a book in the statue’s design, the youth poets’ bodies also turned themselves into literature.  

The stunning highlight of the program was Maya Angelou’s niece, Rosa Johnson, also a big part of Glide Memorial Church’s history.  In this photo from the archives, you see Rosa dressed in African clothing standing next to her Aunt Maya and our co-founder Janice Mirikitani.

“The two most important rooms in my aunt’s home were the kitchen and the library. She inspired my family and me and my children and my children’s children to have libraries,” Rosa reminisced. She talked about how her aunt saved her life, persuaded her to pursue education, and convinced her that God loved her.  “You mean the God that created these trees and flowers and ALL THIS– loves me, Rosa Johnson, mother of four? Loves ME?” Rosa talked about how her acceptance of God’s love brought her to GLIDE, where she started a recovery program for women called African Queens. 

“Auntie would always say ‘Courage is one of the greatest virtues; because without courage you cannot be consistently kind and compassionate,’” Rosa said.  After pausing to wipe her eyes, she went on to say, “It has taken lots and lots of courage and patience to keep on standing up and saying how beautiful we are.”

This statue represents the spirit of Maya Angelou, because it was erected in defiance of the hundreds of years we refused to acknowledge Black women’s beauty. Maya Angelou’s absolute belief in her inner beauty was a light which could not be diminished by anyone or anything.

Lava Thomas said of her sculpture, “This embodiment is a monument of her works. It is an invitation for us to read her works, and to internalize the lessons of faith, daring, courage and perseverance, as we navigate our life’s challenges. It is an invitation to live bodaciously and expansively, with purpose, conviction, and generosity.

Those of us whose ancestors survived the Middle Passage, to arrive on these shores in bondage, remember: we are the hope and dream of the slave. We rise!”

The inscription on the base of the statue was, “We Rise.”

                                                              Photo credit: SF Chronicle