Nicki Minaj was at A&E's Shining A Light: A Concert for Progress on Race in America event on Wednesday evening. She was definitely looking gorgeous in her black and gold ensemble, but Nicki was there for an entirely different reason: to help fight against racism.
Although you would typically expect the rapper to perform one of her hit songs, Nicki Minaj stepped on the stage to o a powerful reading of Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise." Pigeons and Planes reports:
"[...] Nicki Minaj took the stage for a reading of Maya Angelou's 'Still I Rise,' and it was a goosebump-inducing moment. It's proof of how relevant Angelou's 1978 poem still is, and it offers a look into the determination and confidence of Nicki Minaj."
Read the full poem in all it's glory below.
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and feat
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gift that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Catch "Shining A Light: A Concert for Progress on Race in America" when it hits TV screens tonight, November 20, at 8PM EST on A&E.
