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Angelou Brings Art to Science Summit
Health Disparities Gets Intramural Research Component |
By Carla Garnett |
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Dr. Maya Angelou addresses health equity summit. |
A jazz scat segued seamlessly into a Deep River blues riff. African proverbs wound naturally into Croatian travel tales. Rhythmic lines from Langston Hughes flowed effortlessly into her own stream of consciousness stanzas. It was just Dr. Maya Angelou doing what she does—this time for the sake of health and medical research, and for the inspiration and edification of about 4,400 attendees at “NIH Summit: The Science of Eliminating Health Disparities” held Dec. 16-18 at the Gaylord Convention Center, National Harbor, Md.
“When I thought about all the people you touch by the work you do, I thought I would commend you and thank you in their names—for all of the people whose faces you’ll never see and whose names you’ll never hear—because of your commitment to the idea of equity in medical care for everyone,” Angelou said. “I think we can move beyond disparity—because I look at the world, at everything, as if it is a half-filled glass. I think the word disparity puts the weight on the already encumbered. I think if I look at it as ‘equity,’ I have a diffrent image. [I see] more emphasis on opportunity, on seeking, with more resolve, more hope.”
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