Clinton's America: The Real Maya Angelou
Meroney, John
Winston-Salem, North Carolina ill Clinton's choice of Hillary-pal B Maya Angelou to write a poem to be read at his swearing-in is an ominous harbinger. If Clinton has any acquaintance with...
...Meanwhile, Thomas K. Hearn, Wake Forest's president, had arranged for a large-screen TV to be placed in the student center so Angelou's appearance at the ceremony could be seen on campus...
...Angelou has gained attention as a columnist for Playgirl, a poet (I Shall Not Be Moved, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie), a screenwriter (Georgia, Georgia), and the author of not one but five autobiographies (including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas...
...If a person wants freedom, he just wants that freedom to be able to put his foot on the neck of the person who gave him his freedom...
...Her phone number gives an electronic voice mail recording that announces only the extension number...
...Imagine the luxury of receiving a salary of well over $100,000 from an employer who doesn't care whether you show up for work and has no idea whether or not you will ever come back...
...Her schedule is sometimes interrupted by appearances on such television programs as "The Arsenio Hall Show" and "The Today Show...
...Students are not even permitted to select her courses...
...Where JFK offered us genius, Clinton gave us a phantom professor with a broom-closet office and an assumed name...
...More than that, he gave us a clear message that the White House has no interest in facing the problems that are destroying our universities...
...The thesis of the course, she says, is that "most people do not want change—they want exchange...
...John Meroney...
...The registrar informs students that they must "audition" with Professor Angelou for the rare openings...
...Her personal secretary, who operates out of Angelou's mammoth colonial mansion in Winston-Salem, unapologetically stresses that the poet is "never on campus," and says she doesn't know whether Angelou will be teaching again in the future...
...One student remarked that, in fact, this was one of the rare times Angelou had ever been seen on campus at all...
...In the rare years when Angelou has condescended to offer a course, her lectures have been infrequent and erratic...
...If Clinton has any acquaintance with Angelou's literary and academic career, then the President has made it abundantly plain that he has no real interest in addressing our current crisis in higher education...
...Pursuant to special authority granted by the Wake Forest administration, Angelou's classes are by invitation only...
...When I asked her about her salary in proportion to the time she spends in the classroom, she replied that those who raise such questions "don't understand the politics of a university...
...And there is even some ambiguity about what Angelou is supposed to teach at Wake Forest, for classes with the "American Studies" name or division are non-existent...
...The office listed for her in the Wake Forest telephone directory is a storage closet in a building far from the main part of campus...
...She describes herself in interviews and books as a former madam, prostitute, burlesque stripper, and adviser to Malcolm X. In 1982, Angelou, whose real name is Marguerite Johnson, was appointed "Professor for Life" by North Carolina's Wake Forest University...
...She collects an annual salary well into the six figures, yet presently teaches no classes and has no on campus office...
...calls to it are not returned...
...Angelou herself has said she teaches "whatever comes to mind...
...By that, I mean they just want what their adversary has...
...Recently, Angelou told me of a class she has been developing for the past few yearscalled "The Philosophy of Liberation...
...Her favorite subjects include life as a single mother, life in Berkeley, her own rape, and traveling to Ghana to "teach African dance and music" to the native Africans...
...The registrar's office says Angelou isoffering no courses at all this academic year, and isn't sure when she may be in the classroom again...
...Angelou does: Wake Forest could hire four real professors with the money they're paying her...
...Angelou's name and photograph appear year after year—with the title "Distinguished Professor of American Studies"—in Wake Forest's admissions applications, its annual reports to trustees and alumni, and the alumni magazine—but she has no meaningful responsibilities at the university...
...T hree decades ago, President Kennedy, at his inaugural, treated America to the genius of Robert Frost, whose life was one gigantic poetic achievement after another...
Vol. 26 • March 1993 • No. 3
