Oprah Winfrey reveals how a book by the late Dr. Maya Angelou helped her deal with the sexual abuse she faced as a child.
Speaking at the 74th National Book Awards and Benefit Gala in New York on Wednesday, Winfrey, 69, made a speech and mentioned how Angelou’s 1969 book I know why the caged bird sings, he helped her give “words to my pain and my confusion.”
“This year, the nonprofit First Book found that just six months after adding a variety of books to classroom libraries, classroom reading time increased by four hours per week,” Winfrey told Cipriani Wall Street. “I was 15, I was 15 when I read my first diverse book, Maya Angelou I know why the caged bird sings and the whole world fell from me.”
Oprah Winfrey and Maya Angelou pictured at the United Center on May 17, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois.
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The former talk show host added that it was the first book she read as a 15-year-old that had a black protagonist. “That book gave voice to my silences, my secrets,” Winfrey said. “It put into words my pain and my confusion because I was raped at the age of nine.”
Winfrey went on to explain that before reading the book, she “didn’t know there was a language, that there were words for what happened to me, or that any other human being on earth had experienced it,” adding, “That’s the power of books.”
The National Book Awards Ceremony and Benefit Dinner has existed as a celebration of the best writers in the U.S. since its inception in 1950. The event offers cash prizes, medals and other awards to finalists and winners selected by a team of 25 writers, translators, critics, librarians and booksellers, according to official website of the ceremony.
For its 2023 iteration, LeVar Burton was tapped to host the awards, with Winfrey as a special guest. Stars such as Matthew McConaughey, Julie Andrews, Trevor Noah and Dua Lipa introduced each of the event categories with pre-recorded messages.
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Angelou died in 2014 at the age of 86. Winfrey has previously spoken about how the poet left a lasting impact on her life. In 2018, she described Agelou as a mix of friend, mentor and mother figure, and drew inspiration from her for Winfrey’s A wrinkle in time character, Mrs. Which.
“I have been blessed to have had Maya Angelou as my mentor, mother/sister and friend since my 20s,” Winfrey said. Diversity after Angelou died in 2014. “She was always there for me, guiding me through some of the most important years of my life.”
Before her death, Angeloo also appeared many times on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
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Source: HIS Education