Wake Forest University celebrates Maya Angelou during National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month, and Wake Forest University is paying homage to one of its most renowned literary leaders, Maya Angelou.

Erin McCollum, a fellow at Wake Downtown, organized this year’s Maya Angelou Garden Party. It’s an annual event held on the Sunday closest to Angelou's birthday, April 4.

"We've gone around to a bunch of different organizations and encouraged them to attend," McCollum says. "We've reached out to a lot of peer institutions because we really want it to be a great opportunity to bring together the Winston-Salem and Wake Forest communities to celebrate Dr. Angelou's legacy."

Along with readings of Angelou’s poems, such as "Woman Work" and "Still I Rise," McCollum will join other local artists at the event sharing original work. She'll be reading a poem she wrote titled "After All," which drew inspiration from the Angelou quote: "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

Beyond poetry, Angelou is known for her memoirs as well as her civil rights activism. She found her passion for teaching at Wake Forest in 1982, which began her 32-year tenure as a professor of American Studies.

When Angelou passed away in 2014, a private ceremony was held at Wake Forest. Speakers included former President Bill Clinton, former First Lady Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey. 

Ed Wilson, who was her colleague in the university’s English department also spoke.

“At Wake Forest, she found a new career. ‘I’m not a writer who teaches,’ she said. ‘I’m a teacher who writes,'" said Wilson. "So Maya Angelou has become part of the history and the fabric of Wake Forest University, dazzlingly, and forever.”

The Maya Angelou Garden Party takes place at 2 p.m. this Sunday at Bailey Park in downtown Winston-Salem.