"Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest." ~Maya Angelou
 
Maya Angelou has long been the voice of the forgotten and abandoned, knowing firsthand what it felt like to be severely traumatized as a child when she was raped by her mother's boyfriend before he was killed by her uncles and left mute as a result of that assault and numerous other acts of racial prejudice and discrimination. After about five years of her silence, she eventually moved to San Francisco where a new world seemed to open up for her.
 
As the first female black cable car conductor, American author, poet, dancer, actress, screenwriter, and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou made her mark on the world during challenging times.  Eventually, she traveled abroad and become an editor and freelance writer, even holding a position at the University of Ghana.
 
Maya Angelou's autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), was the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman, and her poem And Still I Rise (1978) is still widely used today.
 
"I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." ~Maya Angelou
 
Hand-felted by marginalized women artisans in Kyrgyzstan who have also experienced adversity, you are continuing the work of Maya Angelou by purchasing one of the Silk Road Bazaar products.  You are helping to change the world for the better, one life, one heart at a time.