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STEVEN JOHN: It's All Things Considered. From Minnesota Public Radio news, I'm Steven John. One of the most influential voices in contemporary literature is appearing this weekend with the Minnesota Orchestra. Maya Angelou will narrate Steve Heitzeg's setting of the children's book, On the Day You Were Born. It's part of the target free family concert series on Saturday.

Angelou is a best selling author, poet, Emmy-nominated actress, and three-time Grammy winner. The latest accolade came earlier this month when she received the first ever Voice of Peace Award from the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas. She is also speaking this evening at orchestra hall in what's being called An Evening with Maya Angelou. And she joins me now. Thank you for taking some time out of your schedule, Dr. Angelou.

MAYA ANGELOU: Thank you very much, Steven John.

STEVEN JOHN: I understand your speech tonight will feature selections of your writing and anecdotes from your life, which is an impressive body of work to draw from. What themes are you planning to concentrate on in your talk?

MAYA ANGELOU: Well, in truth, I know that a number of writers and speakers say they have various themes. I think the truth is we all may have various topics, but only one theme. If I was speaking on the East Indian nose flute or thermonuclear propulsion, I would still be speaking about courage. And so whether I say that or not, I will speak about the courage to live, to live with some grace, some courtesy, some kindness, maybe even some generosity.

STEVEN JOHN: Now, the narration you'll be reading for the concerts this weekend is from the book On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier. Has preparing for this concert made you think at all about the day you were born?

MAYA ANGELOU: It has done so. Yeah. But I didn't wait to read Ms. Frasier's book to think about the day I was born. Strangely enough, as you become older, you think about the young years. And I'm about to celebrate my 80th birthday. And so I do think about my very young years, and maybe even the day on which I was born.

STEVEN JOHN: Let's speak about that milestone birthday coming up. It happens on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of your friend, Martin Luther King Jr.

MAYA ANGELOU: That's right.

STEVEN JOHN: You said a while back that you quit celebrating your birthday.

MAYA ANGELOU: I did for many years, until last year, of course. I would call Coretta Scott King, or she would call me. We became sister friends. And we would talk on the phone or send cards to each other, flowers. But about 20 years ago, I thought really to celebrate not just my birthday, but to celebrate Martin Luther King's life. And it made it easier. Do you understand? At first, I just felt embarrassed to be gleeful and cheerful and all that on the anniversary of his rude and early death.

STEVEN JOHN: What do you think of the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. coming up on this 40th anniversary of his assassination?

MAYA ANGELOU: We haven't measured it yet. The measure of his life, the collection of his gifts to us, they haven't fully been measured. It may not be measured for 100 years. We lived such brief, little lives. Brief light and then we're out. So that we tend to think we can learn something by 21, or certainly by 41. But the truth is, we learn erratically. And over time, we learn what other people have learned.

And then they kind of digest it first, and then someone else digests it and rearranges it. And then we come along and we can learn something. So I think the next generation will know more about the gifts of, say, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and the Kennedys and Medgar Evers and Fannie Lou Hamer, Eleanor Roosevelt, some of the great giants we've had in the 20th century.

STEVEN JOHN: Now we have a presidential race shaping up on the Democratic side between a black man, Barack Obama, and a white woman, Hillary Clinton. What's your take on this historic year in politics?

MAYA ANGELOU: It makes for such an excitement, Mr. John. I mean, young people are excited and taking to the streets. And old people are getting up out of wheelchairs. I'm supporting-- I'm in the Hillary Clinton's camp. I support her because I think she'd be the best president for our country.

STEVEN JOHN: Are you getting any tug from African-American leaders?

MAYA ANGELOU: Yes. Not just from leaders, but from ordinary people who call my office and say, you mean our queen, our mother, is supporting Hillary Clinton? And I say, yes, and my secretaries, my office. People say, yes, she is, and proudly so. I have nothing against Mr. Obama. I think he's great. But I'm thinking about the best person I know to lead our country. I've watched Hillary Clinton for well over 20 years.

I watched her when she was the wife of the governor of Arkansas. And she wasn't the governor's wife in the classical sense of the word. Not her. She came. She was interested in the conditions in prisons. And then when she came to the White House, I thought, let me see what she will do then. And when she came and made that statement about don't count on her to make cookies, she was interested in public health and in education for all the children. I thought, well, if this woman ever runs for anything, I'm going to support her.

STEVEN JOHN: OK. Now, looking back on your own legacy and all that you've accomplished and all of the awards, the honorary degrees and the rest, was there a time when an epiphany, if you will, where you said, I guess I really am a major player in history in the US?

MAYA ANGELOU: Well, I did not. Still haven't come to that, although I'm not being coy. I know that I have had some impact. But my mother, when I was 22 and she was grande dame and a small person physically, she stopped me on the street one day. Now I'm six foot tall. She said, baby, I think you are the best, the strongest, the wisest woman I've ever met. And I looked down at her and she had diamond earrings on.

I was living in one room with cooking privileges down the hall. And she said, you're very intelligent and you're very kind. And those virtues don't always go together. Mr. John, I got onto a streetcar in San Francisco after I left her. And I sat there and thought, she's very intelligent. I suppose she's right. She says she's too mean to lie. So I suppose she really is right. I suppose I am going to be somebody.

STEVEN JOHN: Thank you for taking some time out of your schedule today, Dr. Angelou.

MAYA ANGELOU: Thank you, Mr. John.

STEVEN JOHN: Have a wonderful performance this weekend.

MAYA ANGELOU: Thank you very much.