Nikita Gill on Maya Angelou

“When I was 17 years old, after a long search through Delhi’s Daryaganj, I found a copy of And Still I Rise, Maya Angelou’s third anthology of poetry,” says poet Nikita Gill. “At the time I was struggling with my identity as a very young woman and what that meant for my personhood. The poetry in this book, particularly the poems ‘Phenomenal Woman’ and ‘And Still I Rise’ made me appreciate who I was as an individual and as a human being before I was anything else…

“Dr Angelou’s work is transformational. She teaches people, especially women, to embrace and empower themselves, and most of all, to take their stories back where they have been snatched away. Her work celebrates the difficult and the different within us all, whilst tackling racism and misogyny all at once. I found myself needing more and more of her work as I grew older. Her books are now my constant companions, a war ritual I clothe myself in when I am going to face something deeply troubling in life. Even the most gargantuan task seems small when it is confronted with the words: ‘You may trod me in the dirt, But still, like dust, I’ll rise.’”

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