Skip to main content Skip to footer site map
It could be your mother, a friend or a teacher. Have they expressed themselves artistically? Worked to better their community? Achieved academic success? Empowered others and embraced diversity? Share their stories here.
* required
  • I agree to the submission terms and conditions
  • By submitting this form (your “Submission”), you represent, warrant and agree that (i) the information you have provided is truthful to the best of your knowledge, (ii) THIRTEEN may share your Submission with its affiliates, WNET, WLIW, and PMNJ, and licensees including without limitation PBS (collectively, “WNET”), (iii) WNET may use your Submission, in whole or in part, in all manner and media, including but not limited in connection with American Masters - Inspiring Woman (the “Project”), companion materials and ancillary platforms for the Project, and Project and institutional promotion and outreach, (iv) your Submission may be edited for brevity or inappropriate content, and (v) you possess or have obtained all rights necessary to grant the foregoing permissions – including without limitation privacy or publicity rights with respect to any individual(s) depicted in the Submission, and copyright in the Submission.

Gaël Blanchard

Boston

Can I say that Maya Angelou reminds me of my mother? A white, Irish Catholic woman who grew up in Boston? The best person I have ever known, and who I talk to everyday in spite of her being gone three years now. She had the same grace, dignity and poise of speech as Miss Maya. The same quality of authenticity. She taught me to be patient, and to understand that all living things mattered. That I mattered. That one cannot give too much love, but to step aside from those who only want to injure. In small ways, every day, she fought against injustice and would weep quietly over any depiction of war. She knew suffering in her own life, but refused to focus on it. I will miss her forever, but find myself in these current times leaning on the reverberations of calm steadiness that she left behind in my being. I thank you Evelyn G. Breen Blanchard, with all my heart.

© 2024 WNET. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

PBS is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.