Press Reviews

• Barack Obama

  One of the brightest lights of our time -- a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman

• Bill Clinton

  The poems and stories she wrote and read to us in her commanding voice were gifts of wisdom and wit, courage and grace . . . I will always be grateful for her electrifying reading of 'On the Pulse of Morning' at my first inaugural, and even more for all the years of friendship that followed

• Oprah Winfrey

  The world knows her as a poet but at the heart of her, she was a teacher. "When you learn, teach. When you get, give" is one of my best lessons from her

• James Baldwin

  You will hear the regal woman, the mischievous street girl; you will hear the price of black woman's survival and you will hear of her generosity. Black, bitter, and beautiful, she speaks of our survival