Awakening

by Alyssa Herzinger Elliott | Lilies in the Bardo

“Still I Rise”
Written and performed by Maya Angelou

ABOUT THIS PIECE

The final card of this spread is Awakening, a woman who rises above the clouds to find clarity, initiate a reckoning of the heart, and dish out “radical self-compassion” (Chris-Anne 28). I’ve used musicomancy to translate specific words from Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise, and composed melodic themes, using one letter/note at a time, rather than turning an entire word into a chord in order to give more focus to Angelou’s voice.

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