BRATTLEBORO — UVM professor Emily Bernard will look at the transformation of beloved poet and activist Maya Angelou in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library on Jan. 7, 2015, at 7 p.m.
Her talk, “Delicious to the Ear: The Inspiring Voice of Maya Angelou,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series and is free and open to the public.
Before she became an internationally revered poet, memoirist, and activist, Maya Angelou was mute for five years as a child. Bernard will explain how poetry awakened Angelou's voice, a voice that transformed a history of trauma into inspiration and beauty.
Bernard is a professor of English and critical race and ethnic studies at the University of Vermont. Her books include “Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten” (2001), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; “Some of My Best Friends: Writers on Interracial Friendship” (2004), chosen by the New York Public Library as a Book for the Teen Age; and “Michelle Obama: The First Lady in Photographs” (2009), a book she co-authored with Deborah Willis, which received a 2010 NAACP Image Award.
Her most recent book, “Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Portrait in Black and White,” was published by Yale University Press in 2012. Her essays have been published in several anthologies and journals.
The Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays series is held on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May at Brooks Memorial Library. The program is free, accessible to people with disabilities, and open to the public.
Upcoming talks in Brattleboro include “Plato's Republic: Rethinking His Utopian Ideal” with philosophy scholar Susanne Claxton on Feb. 4; “Photography as Fine Art: Alfred Stieglitz and Camera Work” with Middlebury College professor Kirsten Hoving on March 4; and “The National Security Agency: The Law, the Media, and the Legacy of Edward Snowden” with retired NSA executive Bill Sullivan on April 1.