So, if you predicted that BBC Sport would produce the most popular (and probably most critically acclaimed) poetry broadcast of the summer, you'd have been right. The video of Serena Williams reading Maya Angelou's famous poem, "Still I Rise," was broadcast by the BBC after Serena won her 22nd major tennis championship at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (Wimbledon, of course). So far, it's been viewed about 110,000 times on Youtube, and broadcast by the BBC and various other broadcast outlets on commercial television.
Serena seems to have the ideal voice and persona for the poem. She's seen her remarkable career sidetracked by injuries and family tragedy. She's had to face racism both overt and subtle on a tour long dominated by mostly white players, coaches, officials and fans. She rose to greatness not under the tutelage of top tennis coaches and country club amenities, but from the public courts in Compton, California, where she and her sister Venus were taught tennis by their father, who had borrowed a book about teaching tennis from the local public library in order to teach his kids how to play. (Both Serena and Venus would be coached by their father and mother, Richard Williams and Oracene Williams, through most of their careers.) And at the age of 34–which would have seemed ancient for a professional tennis player a generation ago–she ties the great Steffi Graf for the most major titles in the open tennis era, which began nearly half a century ago.
Here you can watch the BBC Video of Serena reading Angelou's poem, backed by a montage of clips from Serena's tennis career.
