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OU Professor Talks About Angelou’s Impact On Women’s Issues
By: WOUB Staff Writer
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Maya Angelou, one of the most influential writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, died at age 86 on May 28.
Pam Kaylor, a women's and gender studies professor at Ohio University's Lancaster campus, talked Thursday about Angelou's lasting influence on women now.
"She is one of the most famous women in contemporary times," Kaylor said. "Her…powerful wisdom serves as deeply inspiring for women."
Angelou died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina after a long illness, according to NPR.
"We study her in our classes," Kaylor said. "And she left us with a wealth of information. She's written more than 16 books, she's done four films, she has a plethora of poetry.
"Her work will live on, there's no doubt in that…She will have been really a leader of leaders, and I think that leadership is documented and will continue to inspire young women."
Recently, after a shooting at UC-Santa Barbara targeting women, the #YesAllWomen hashtag has dominated much of the social media world. Kaylor said the famous activist would have tackled the culture's violence issues with her usual strength.
"I think she would fight that with every fiber of her being," Kaylor said. "She would talk, though, in a positive light on how we are phenomenal women and how we shouldn't be degraded and how we shouldn't be oppressed, and how we can make changes to fight against that."