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Maya Angelou lilted, laughed and recited poetry while imparting
a message of hope to the University's classes of 2002: CWRU graduates
are the rainbows in a world clouded with cruelty.
 "When
it looked like the sun would not shine anymore," the renowned
poet sang to begin her keynote address at the University's convocation
ceremonies this weekend, "God put a rainbow in the clouds."
The verse from a 19th century African-American lyricist and poet-probably
a woman, Angelou jested-was inspired by a passage from the Bible
that says God sent a rainbow to remind people that even though
the sun was hidden behind rain and clouds, it was still shining.
Angelou, who received an honorary degree and gave most of her
20-minute speech without reading notes, told the graduates they
would face daunting tasks "in a time that embarrasses me as a
grandmother."
"Sorry to be offering you this world so full of hate, rife with
ignorance, bloated with cruelty," she said. "But here it is."
"I know I may be the last teacher in this part of your venture,"
she added. "Don't be afraid to become all that you have to become.
We desperately need you."
According to Angelou, the "professors, teachers, preachers and
rabbis" at CWRU have given graduates the tools to "light the path
for someone behind you."
"You have come so far and have so far to go," Angelou said.
"You are the best we have."
She closed her address with a poem she wrote for the 50th anniversary
of the founding of the United Nations. "We are the possible. We
are the miraculous," she said.
"We—you—are true wonders of this world. You have become
the rainbow in the clouds."
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