{"id":15287,"date":"2022-02-23T16:25:04","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T16:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/?p=15287"},"modified":"2022-02-23T16:25:04","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T16:25:04","slug":"maya-angelou-coin-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/maya-angelou-coin-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Maya Angelou Coin Released"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Maya\u00a0 Angelou Coin has finally be release.\u00a0 After a decades-long fight – and, to be clear, amidst enduring, egregious inequities – the U.S. Mint has begun\u00a0circulating<\/a>\u00a0a new quarter featuring the late poet, author and activist Maya Angelou, now the first Black woman to\u00a0appear\u00a0<\/a>on the coin. The Angelou tribute is the first in an American Women Quarters Program aimed at honoring prominent women, preferably of color, long ignored in a history and currency dominated by old, white, often slave-owning men. Known for her lyrical writing and majestic voice, Angelou rose to fame after the publication of her seminal autobiography, “I Know Why the\u00a0Caged Bird<\/a><\/span>\u00a0Sings,” a harrowing account set in the segregated South of her brutal rape at the age of seven by her mother’s boyfriend – a trauma that rendered her mute for six years. “There is no greater agony,” she wrote much later, “than bearing an untold story inside you.” Over time, Angelou won countless literary and humanitarian awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and was given over 50 honorary degrees. She died in 2014 at 86, having never ceased speaking her vivid truth: “You may\u00a0write me down in history\/With your bitter, twisted lies\/You may trod me in the very dirt\/But still, like dust, I\u2019ll rise.”<\/div>\n
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The Women Quarters\u00a0project<\/a>\u00a0is largely credited to California Rep. Barbara Lee, who after years of advocacy introduced the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020; it passed last January. With Monday’s release, she celebrated “the phenomenal women who shaped American history (who) have gone unrecognized for too long – especially women of color.” There will be more, thanks to the Mint’s invitation to the public to submit other entries: From now through 2025, the series will also feature Wilma Mankiller, the first female Cherokee chief; Adelina Otero-Warren, a New Mexico suffragette; Sally Ride, the first woman in space; and Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American\u00a0 film star. “Each time we redesign our currency, (it says) something about our country – what we value and how we’ve progressed,” said US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Umm, yes and no,\u00a0said\u00a0<\/a>Twitter.<\/em>\u00a0Many noted the new coin, echoing the Caged Bird, still has likely-slave-owner\u00a0 George Washington on the “heads” side; others asked where Harriet Tubman’s long-awaited $20 bill is, or noted the country’s still-raging misogyny, or suggested half a new coin is like a male boss giving a 40-cent raise and congratulating himself on your “empowerment.”\u00a0We take heart from Angelou.\u00a0“When people show you who they are the first time, believe them,” she famously wrote.\u00a0Then,\u00a0<\/a><\/span>“When you don’t like a thing…change it.”<\/p>\n

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A free bird leaps<\/div>\n
on the back of the wind<\/div>\n
and floats downstream<\/div>\n
till the current ends<\/div>\n
and dips his wing<\/div>\n
in the orange sun rays<\/div>\n
and dares to claim the sky.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But a bird that stalks<\/div>\n
down his narrow cage<\/div>\n
can seldom see through<\/div>\n
his bars of rage<\/div>\n
his wings are clipped and<\/div>\n
his feet are tied<\/div>\n
so he opens his throat to sing.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The caged bird sings<\/div>\n
with a fearful trill<\/div>\n
of things unknown<\/div>\n
but longed for still<\/div>\n
and his tune is heard<\/div>\n
on the distant hill<\/div>\n
for the caged bird<\/div>\n
sings of freedom.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The free bird thinks of another breeze<\/div>\n
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees<\/div>\n
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn<\/div>\n
and he names the sky his own.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams<\/div>\n
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream<\/div>\n
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied<\/div>\n
so he opens his throat to sing.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
The caged bird sings<\/div>\n
with a fearful trill<\/div>\n
of things unknown<\/div>\n
but longed for still<\/div>\n
and his tune is heard<\/div>\n
on the distant hill<\/div>\n
for the caged bird<\/div>\n
sings of freedom.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maya\u00a0 Angelou Coin has finally be release.\u00a0 After a decades-long fight – and, to be clear, amidst enduring, egregious inequities – the U.S. Mint has begun\u00a0circulating\u00a0a new quarter featuring the late poet, author and activist Maya Angelou, now the first Black woman to\u00a0appear\u00a0on the coin. The Angelou tribute is the first in an American Women Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[829,133,39,40,5,1],"tags":[1206,1088],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15290,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15287\/revisions\/15290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}