Janis Kearney is fundraising
Help Build the Dr. Maya Angelou House
We need you!
Summer is gone, fall is here...and, we're still excited about where we go from here. We still need your help to reach our goal of raising $50,000 by December 2023, to begin renovation on the Maya House in early 2024. These next months are critical to begin the important work of transforming our 95-year-old uninhabited house into a home for preserving Maya Angelou’s legacy in Arkansas, the state she called home during her most critical childhood years. Please help us raise this building and begin planting seeds of hope for our children’s tomorrows. Help us reach our goal by the end of December 2023. Donate what you can, and share our GoFundMe link on Instagram, Facebook, through text, and everywhere you can!
Our History
In May 2014, in response to Dr. Maya Angelou’s death, Arkansas delta native Janis F. Kearney, an author, former newspaper publisher, and presidential diarist convened a small group of Arkansas women to create a “Day of Remembrance,” in Stamps, Arkansas—the place young Marguerite “Maya” Johnson, called home.
In 2015, the Celebrate! Maya Project was established with the mission of helping honor and promote the inclusive literacy, creativity and social consciousness of the life and work of artist and activist Dr. Maya Angelou. Celebrate! Maya Project is bringing literacy, arts and history initiatives into schools and working with communities.
In April 2022, during the annual celebration of Dr. Maya Angelou’s birthday, Celebrate! Maya Project announced a Capital Campaign to renovate a 93-year-old, uninhabitable home in the Little Rock Central High School Historic District, to transform it into the Dr. Maya Angelou Home and also,
- A Celebrate! Maya Headquarters
- A youth education development center to include more intentional youth initiatives in response to the “Lost Years,” of the COVID Pandemic
- A cross-generational community center honoring Dr. Angelou’s life and works
- A tourist attraction for visitors seeking to learn about Dr. Maya Angelou’s life and legacy
- And, a “Maya Angelou learning and living” garden for youth and the community
One of the organization’s primary missions is “taking Maya Angelou to Arkansas schools and communities,” to share her role in changing the face of arts and humanity and to help youth in the Arkansas Delta see themselves in her. Her first memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, chronicled Maya Angelou’s early life which was rife with racial and social challenges; and how, with perseverance and determination, she rose beyond her surroundings and early experiences. The Project seeks to ensure the children of the Delta that they too, can rise above their life obstacles and hardships.
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