Cultural icon Oprah Winfrey knows why the caged bird sings, too, and she and the late American poet Maya Angelou have even more than that sacred knowledge in common. So it’s not a surprise to hear how emotional Oprah gets while showing off her handful of newly minted Maya Angelou quarters.
As Oprah begins: “I have here in my hand a true treasure.” Of course, she’s not talking about the monetary value of the coins, but the symbolism represented on them. Oprah’s holding only a few dollars in quarters, but she’s holding the whole world of change, so to speak, in her hand too. It’s “so magnificent it makes me want to cry,” Oprah says. Real change will do that.
And this is real change: Oprah summarizes Maya Angelou’s story quickly as “a young Black girl growing up in Stamps, Arkansas, being put through everything that she had to endure, including losing her voice at a young age and then becoming one of the world’s greatest poets.”
And then to be so honored by her country, to be put on its currency! “Maya,” Oprah says to her friend, “look at what you did.” More than two million people have already viewed Oprah’s beautiful tribute to some change that speaks of change.
Only when Oprah does something as personal as ringing in the New Year or showing off her family and her house AND BABY LUCA! at Christmas do more people applaud.
