It's time to rest again, rebels, to let the day go, to let your mind wander into a world of ideas and dreams and poetry.

We're going to hear the story of a woman whose name was Marguerite Annie Johnson. But most people knew her as Maya Angelou.

And Maya Angelou used her voice to recite beautiful verses

and to stand up for herself.

Before we get started, and to stand up for herself.

Before we get started, let's get settled in. Snuggle down.

Close your eyes and begin to imagine.

Let your mind go on a bedtime journey.

When Maya Angelou was a young girl, she was afraid to speak. In fact, there was a period of time where she didn't speak for five years.

But as she grew, she learned how to use her voice.

She used that voice of hers to write volumes of stories and poems and recite them in front of thousands of people.

But before she was a famous poet, she was a 16-year-old girl who wanted to be a streetcar conductor.

Let's begin to imagine a soft, dawning light over a city just starting to wake up.

In the early gentle light, Maya was already up and reading. Maya loved to read, and as a young girl, she would read

big stories, stories that transported her, stories that taught her things. Maya also spent much of her childhood in silence.

Silently memorizing everything,

like the sensation of the ground on her bare feet,

the tone of voices in her family,

the full names of people she'd only met briefly,

but she never uttered a word.

Then, when she was 13 years old, Maya's teacher, Miss Flower, introduced her to poetry. She encouraged Maya to recite the poems aloud, to give them life, And Maya blossomed.

She found her voice.

...