Songsoptok is proud to present
its 2nd issue this month. We bring to you this month almost 40
publications from talented writers and poets from all over the world. We are
confident that you shall appreciate the quality of our posts.
Our first issue was published
on 9th May 2014. In this one month period, quite a few important
events have taken place. The marathon general elections in India finally ended
with the results declared on 16th May. The National Democratic
Alliance, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, won a sweeping victory and
Mr.Narendra Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister, ending the long supremacy
of the Indian national Congress. Terrorists in Nigeria detonate bombs at Jos,
killing 118 people. The Royal Thai Army overthrows the caretaker government of
Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan after a failure to resolve the political unrest in
Thailand. Fighting continues in Ukraine with very little hope of any solution
in view. Islamist militant group Boko Haram claims responsibility for
kidnapping about 280 girls from a school in northeast Nigeria resulting in a
worldwide protest movement.
In this politically turbulent
world resembling shifting quicksand, men and women continue to dream and to
believe and to fight. We dedicate this month’s Songsoptok to such a person – a
poet close to the masses, who spoke the everyday language, a writer, a teacher,
a warrior- who left us on 28th May – Maya Angelou.
Maya Angelou was born on April
4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri and brought up in there, growing up in an
environment of brutal racial discrimination. An indomitable spirit with a firm
belief in the underlying goodness of human beings, Dr. Angelou studied and
mastered several languages, toured the world and finally returned to the US in
1964 to help Malcolm X build a new civil rights organization - Organization of
Afro-American Unity. Following the assassination of Malcolm X shortly
afterwards, Maya Angelou moved away from activism for a time and started
concentrating on her artistic career.
‘I know why the caged bird
sings’ was published in 1969 and brought her international recognition and
acclaim. She was hailed as a new kind of memoirist, one of the first African
American women who were able to publicly discuss their personal lives. She was
called "the black woman's poet laureate", and her poems have been
called the anthems of African Americans. Her defiant, politically charged,
feminist approach to poetry inspired a whole generation of women writers and
activists.
She spoke an earthy language
which everybody could understand. Her poems and other forms of writing has
inspired a host of women writers and activists, quite a few of them
Afro-American. Her strong voice spoke out boldly, revealing everything, hiding
nothing about what it was to be a woman. She spoke about desire, about love,
about a host of things but above all, about courage. Maya Angelou was this
generation’s voice of courage, using words hard hitting and melodious,
unabashed, undaunted, forever optimistic.
We dedicate this second issue
to her and hope that we shall be able to carry on her legacy and help build a
world more equal, more just and more harmonious.
Rest in peace, dear poetess,
and let your spirit guide the future generations.
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