At that, the packed Chapel rose to its feet, clapping and calling out, "We love you." Angelou then continued with a shorter version of the speech she gave last year, speaking for 45 minutes about race, prejudice and ignorance.
"There is a world of difference between being an old female and a woman," she said after finishing a rendition of a Roberta Flack song she had written. "There is a world of difference between being an old male and a man."
She used three distinct voices to tell stories about overcoming racial prejudices--employing her official speaking voice for the majority of her speech, several times switching to a half-singing, half-speaking voice to sing and recite her own poetry, and occasionally slipping into a conversational tone to interject comments into her official presentation.
The Wake Forest University professor told how she opened a Krispy Kreme store--"I didn't know what to wear," she said--and how her uncle Willie taught her multiplication tables--holding her by the toes upside down over a coal stove.
She challenged the freshmen to change the world by acting with courage. "It's the most important of the virtues because without it you cannot practice any of the other virtues," she said. Students bill Angelou's speech as the highlight of freshman orientation. She is a best-selling author and noted poet as well as a television producer and civil-rights activist. Each year the Delta Gamma Sorority helps sponsor her speech on multi-culturalism for new students at Duke.
"Maya Angelou is one of my idols, and I have very few idols," said freshman Florence Noel. Noel and freshman Teniola Adedipe had won sixth row seats in the game of musical chairs the audience played before the speech as the ushers opened up reserved seating to students. "I've always been fascinated by [Angelou's] work," said Adedipe. "There is a lot of rape and violence in her novels. As a black woman, it's incredible that she's touching on them."
Not all freshmen were so anxious to be there. Jon Karlin said he came because the rest of his Freshman Advisory Group was going at the end of the summer reading discussion. "I kind of felt out of place if I didn't go."
Others, like Lisa Backman, were more excited by Angelou's high name recognition. Backran rushed Angelou's limo when she arrived and ambushed the author. "I was like, 'C'mon, guys,' and they just stood there so I ran up to her with my friend," Backman said. "I called my dad and he was like, 'Are you excited because she's famous or because it's her?' and I'm not really sure which one it is."
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