Google paid a beautiful tribute Wednesday to Maya Angelou on what would have been the beloved author and activist's 90th birthday.
» RELATED: Atlanta remembers Maya Angelou
The company created a video doodle for its homepage set to her famous poem “Still I Rise,” featuring her own voice and the voices of six other individuals whose lives she inspired, including Alicia Keys, America Ferrera, Martina McBride, Angelou’s son Guy Johnson, Laverne Cox and Oprah Winfrey.
Early in her life at age 7, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend, a tragic experience that rendered her mute for five years.
» RELATED: Celebrities react to the death of Maya Angelou
"During those years, however, books and poetry became her solace and constant companions, eventually helping her find her voice again to embark upon an intellectual and creative journey that defies description," Google wrote in a blog post.
Angelou went on to perform in professional cabarets, covered Africa as a journalist and became a champion for civil rights.
She became the first black woman to write a bestselling nonfiction book — her 1969 memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
» PHOTOS: Maya Angelou through the years
In 1998, she directed the film "Down in the Delta" about a drug-wrecked woman who returns to the home of her ancestors in the Mississippi Delta.
Angelou was also the first poet to make an inaugural recitation in three decades when Bill Clinton became president in 1992.
She died at age 86 on May 28, 2014.
"Maya Angelou is not what she has done or written or spoken, it's how she did it all. She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence, and a fiery, fierce grace and abounding love," Winfrey said in the Google blog.
To honor the prolific poet on her 90th birthday, here are 7 iconic quotes to remember her by:
1. “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
2. “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
3. “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
4. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.”
5. “Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”
6. "Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me."
7. “The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”
About the Author
