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Author, poet, actress, teacher, playwright and civil rights activist Maya Angelou traveled across the country by bus to speak to the Georgia Tech community on Nov. 15 at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
"Los Angeles to Atlanta, Georgia, is a fair step on a bus. When I say I'm glad to be here, I mean it," said Angelou to the laughter and applause of the more than 4,000 students, faculty, staff, alumni and guests who had gathered for the speech. Angelou, who prefers the privacy of her own bus, has not boarded an airplane for nearly eight years.
Angelou's address served as the finale to the Finding Common Ground program, a student-led initiative designed to create a civil dialogue and discussion among Georgia Tech students with various backgrounds and perspectives.
"I'm happy to be in the presence of composers," Angelou said, "at an institution of higher education, which in its deepest, most profound dream means to be a composer. Composing possibilities and promises for young men and women. Making promises and possibilities for our country and for the world. That is what Georgia Tech is. And that's what you are."
Angelou urged students to not only become composers of their own lives but also to develop the courage to make an impact on the lives of others. "Take that trip. See what can happen when you decide to become, take the responsibility of, becoming a composer. Having the courage to compose your lives so that you can be an inspiration. You can create the light and shine on people who may not be like you. Who may call God a different name, if they call a god at all. Who might eat the same foods but prepared differently. Just imagine."
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