Among Maya Angelou’s limitless works of literary genius one favorite has always been, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” a thought I find extremely applicable to the most talented songbird on the planet.
Having arrived at the Jefferson Center on Thursday evening after the lights had dimmed and the show was already in progress, I had to stand in the wings in darkness with a few others before we could be escorted to our respective seats. As I approached mine, only three rows from main stage, I looked up and found myself standing before the most beautiful smiling performer I had ever witnessed-. That smile of confidence and control accompanied every hypnotic move made by the incomparable Rene’ Marie during her magnificent performance throughout the evening.
I have watched this beautiful “caged bird” wing her way through many years of alternating heights, as in the story of “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” while sharing her personal story through it all in her own creative songwriting style and her personal spins on the great creations of others.
Accompanied by the greatest trio imaginable, it has now become unquestionably clear-–her exceptional voice quality and range and purity of heart, interwoven with her life’s experiences that she share’s freely with each audience, history will unquestionably record that this Caged Bird has flown!–and has no equal and no limits on this planet!
A perfect example of what can result when you…“Lift up your heart above the present and look with eyes of faith into the future,” we glean from the Baha’i Holy Writings. To also be kept in mind as we enter Black History Month when there is a tendency by some to dwell upon the unpleasant things of the past.
Unfortunately–no, tragically, little if any recorded local Black history can be found prior to 1980 following the 1983 bulldozing of The Roanoke Tribune (with NO prior warning) during the city’s “redevelopment” of Henry Street where the Tribune had been located for the past 30 years at the time. Subsequently now, in its 76th year of publication, The Tribune, that has chronicled most of Roanoke’s proud Black History, currently has on file only complete annual files dating back to 1980 with two waterlogged files (1977 and 78) retrieved from a previous firebombing.
In recent years there continue to be more popular “oral history” recording sessions that, while accumulating much factual information, some “history” can get distorted with time as recollection and reflection can seldom be as accurate as recorded facts at the time of the occurrence.
The Roanoke Tribune takes great pride in publishing such proud Black historical facts whenever certifiably made available, and its 2012 Special Supplement edition featured several local Black historians. There are also several individual collectors of Roanoke’s proud Black history and historians whose combined treasures could put this unique Roanoke Valley in the national perspective in which it rightfully belongs.
So, Lift up your hearts above the present, and look back with pride into the past and with eyes of faith into the future. You have no idea how special you are!
