When Maya Angelou and Tavis Smiley met in 1986, he was twenty-one and she was fifty-eight. For the next twenty-eight years they shared an unlikely, special bond. Angelou was a teacher and a maternal figure to Smiley, and they talked often, of art, politics, history, race, religion, music, love, purpose and courage. Especially the courage to be open, to follow dreams, to believe in oneself. Tavis Smiley's personal memories and decades-long friendship with one of history's most fascinating women enriched his life.
