The Heart of a Woman (an outfit post and a book recommendation / Srce žene (odjevna objava i preporuka knjige)

 Hello! In this post, I'll share a book recommendation. The Heart of a Woman is a memoir by Maya Angelou. The events she describes in this book take place between 1957 and 1962 and in that sense this book is a continuation of her previous memoirs.  

I do admire her courage when it comes to blending literature with autobiography. It is not an easy task and only a few have really gotten away with it. To narrate one's life, any period of it, in such an intimate way demands great courage, but turning that narration into a literature takes a kind of discipline and self restraint only great writers have, thought people generally don't realize how hard writing on this level really is.

 Years ago, I found a quote by Maya that really moved me but instead of looking her up immediately, I decided to wait. My intuition told me that a book by her will arrive at the perfect moment. Having read doctor Martin Luther King's autobiography earlier this year put many events in context. However, this memoir is much more than a sum of events, it is a window to a heart of a woman. 

I could have missed that chance if  haven't had read King first because it was his writing that prepared me for this one. I greeted eagerly an opportunity to read this book with an open heart....and the heart of a woman I got to meet is exceptionally warm, unbelievably candid and wonderfully understanding. Have you read Maya Angelou yet?

Zdravo, u ovoj objavi podijelit ću sa vama književnu preporuku. Srce Žene je jedan od memoara Maye Angelou. Događaje koje opisuje u ovoj knjizi vremenski možemo smjestiti između 1945. i 1962. i u tom smislu ova je knjiga nastavak njezinih prijašnjih memoara. Doista se divim njenoj hrabrosti u spajanju književnosti i autobiografije. Nije to jednostavan zadatak i zapravo je samo nekolicini uspjelo. 

Ispričati svoj život, pa bilo koji period života bio u pitanju, na tako intiman način zahtjeva puno hrabrosti, a pretvaranje tog prepričavanja u književnost zahtjeva takvu vrstu discipline i samokontrole koju samo vrhunski pisci imaju, iako ljudi općenito ne shvaćaju koliko je teško pisati na toj razini. 

Prije dosta godina, naišla sam na jedan Mayin citat s kojim sam bila dirnuta, ali umjesto da je odmah potražim odlučila sam pričekati jer mi je intuicija rekla da će njena knjiga doći do mene u pravom trenutku, a tako je i bilo. 

To što sam ranije ove godine pročitala autobiografiju doktora Martina Luthera Kinga stavilo je puno događaja u perspektivu, ali ova je knjiga puno više nego skup događaja, to je prozor u srce jedne žene. Mogla sam i propustiti tu priliku da nisam pročitala Kinga prvog zato što me njegovo pisanje pripremilo za ovo....

Dočekala sam s veseljem priliku za čitanje ove knjige  i s otvorenim srcem, a srce žene koju sam imala upoznati je izrazito toplo, nevjerojatno iskreno i puno divnog razumijevanja. Jeste li vi još čitali Mayu Angelou? 

Top: Painted by myself/sama sam ga oslikala
Suknja/skirt: vintage
shoes: startas

“Rev. [Martin Luther] King continued, chanting, singing his prophetic litany. We were one people, indivisible in the sight of God, responsible to each other and for each other.

We, the black people, the most displaced, the poorest, the most maligned and scourged, we had the glorious task of reclaiming the soul and saving the honor of the country. We, the most hated, must take hate into our hands and by the miracle of love, turn loathing into love. We, the most feared and apprehensive, must take fear and by love, change it into hope. We, who die daily in large and small ways, must take the demon death and turn it into Life.

His head was thrown back and his words rolled out with the rumbling of thunder. We had to pray without ceasing and work without tiring. We had to know evil will not forever stay on the throne. That right, dashed to the ground, will rise, rise again and again.”

.......

“Can I do it? I'd rather not try and fail."

"That's stupid talk, Maya. Every try will not succeed. But if you're going to live, live at all, your business is trying. And if you fail once, so what? Old folks say, Every shuteye ain't sleep and every goodbye ain't gone. You fail, you get up and try again.”
Maya Angelou, The Heart of a Woman

Top: Painted by myself/sama sam ga oslikala
Suknja/skirt: vintage
shoes: startas

SELECTED QUOTES FROM THE HEART OF A WOMAN

“I had to trust life, since I was young enough to believe that life loved the person who dared to live it.”

“You can't get too high for somebody to bring you down.”

“Genet suggested that colonialism would crumble from the weight of its ignorance, its arrogance and greed, and that the oppressed would take over the positions of their former masters. They would be no better, no more courageous and no more merciful.”

“Every person under the sound of my voice is a soldier. You are either fighting for your freedom or betraying the fight for freedom or enlisted in the army to deny somebody else freedom.”

..............

“America was aptly described by George Bernard Shaw, who said that it was ‘the only country which had gone from barbarism to decadence without once passing through civilization.”

.......

“It was the awakening summer of 1960 and the entire country was in labor. Something wonderful was about to be born, and we were all going to be good parents to the welcome child. Its name was Freedom.”

................

“Black orators, more eloquent than Genet, had informed white Americans for three centuries that our living conditions were intolerable. David Walker in 1830 and Frederick Douglass in 1850 had revealed the anguish and pain of life for blacks in the United States. Martin Delaney and Harriet Tubman, Marcus Garvey and Dr. DuBois, and Martin King and Malcolm X had explained with anger, passion and persuasion that we were living precariously on the ledge of life, and that if we fell, the entire structure, which had prohibited us living room, might crumble as well.

So in 1960, white Americans should have known all they needed to know about black Americans.”

Maya Angelou, The Heart of a Woman

“Why did she want to go to sea and live the rough unglamorous life of a seaman? ‘Because they told me Negro women couldn’t get in the union. You know what I told them?’ I shook my head, although I nearly knew. ‘I told them, “You want to bet?” I’ll put my foot in that door up to my hip until women of every color can walk over my foot, get in that union, get aboard a ship and go to sea.”
Maya Angelou

“If I wanted to write, I had to be willing to develop a kind of concentration found mostly in people awaiting execution. I had to learn technique and surrender my ignorance.”
The Heart of a Woman

“Did he insult you? I mean us, the race?"

"Not directly. Like most white racists, he was paternalistic. I would have preferred he slap me than that he talk down upon me. Then I could retaliate in kind.”

.....

“We have to go."

Billie looked up from her drink and said, "Speak for yourself. All I got to do is stay black and die.”

...

“White movie stars attracted by Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier were lending their names to the struggle, and their sincerity stood up against the most suspicious scrutiny. One evening at Belafonte's house, Shelley Winters explained why she was glad to contribute her money and her time to the SCLC.

"It's not that I love Reverend King or all black people or even Harry Belafonte. I have a daughter. She's white and she's young now, but when she grows up and finds that most of the people in the world are black or brown or yellow, and have been oppressed for centuries by people who look like her, she's going to ask me what I did about it. I want to be able to say, 'The best I could.'" I was still suspicious of most white liberals, but Shelley Winters sounded practical and I trusted her immediately. After all, she was a mother just like me, looking after her child.”
Maya Angelou, The Heart of a Woman

“Why should I be afraid of you?'
He was still laughing. He said 'Maybe you think I'll think you are a missionary and I'll eat you.'
I said 'I don't think that anyway. If more Africans had eaten more missionaries, the continent would be in better shape.”

....
“His accent was delicious. A result of British deliberateness changed by the rhythm of an African tongue and the grace of African lips. I moved away after smiling, needing to sit apart and collect myself. I had not met such a man.”

Top: Painted by myself/sama sam ga oslikala
Suknja/skirt: vintage
shoes: startas

Thank you!