Oprah Winfrey

Maya.

Maya Angelou.

So I just feel like also, as Maya said in one of her poems called Poem to My Grandmother, I come as one, but I stand as 10,000.

And so I never walk into any space where I've been

the only woman.

I've been the only black person within a 500-mile radius.

I never feel like I don't belong there because I'm walking in with all the people who've prayed me up and wish for a better day.

And I come with not just my mind and body, but I come with the spiritual forces that are also living inside, around, above, and through me.

I was prepared to leave my parents' house.

I wanted to so much.

Three.

Depending on what stage I was in.

So if I was at my grandmother's house, there's a little...

There was a little side porch.

There was a swing on the porch.

And then there was a hydrangea bush.

And there was a little space between the hydrangea bush and the house where the chickens would go.

Chickens would go in there sometimes.

And it was just a little, little, little, little, little tiny space.

And if it was thundering and lightning or if I felt unsafe, that's where I would go.