REFLECTIONS – Maitefa Angaza – In Remembrance of a Beautiful Life

We join Our Time Press and Black Star News in sharing a statement from the Angaza Family on the passing of our cherished Queen Maitefa Angaza whose love for community will liv on. Her smile, laugh, sense of humor, and intelligence will be remembered and deeply missed.
Her passing is a personal loss for me and our AV/Reel Sisters Family. I knew her as a friend and sister in the arts, and I was blessed to share many beautiful and wondrous moments with her as dream catchers.

We were cheerleaders for each other — as friends, we pulled each other up. If there was a dream to be had, we claimed it together.
We met while she was a managing editor at The City Sun and AV was still in newspaper format. Maitefa published a full-page spread in The City Sun on a largely unknown magazine that was still mostly a vision.

Maitefa was a master writer, editor and storyteller. Shortly after the The City Sun ceased publication, she became our managing editor publishing some of our most defining and historic issues for more than a decade in the early 2000s.
One of Mai’s greatest contributions to AV was our “A Great Day in Theater” edition. We teased each other about who conceived the idea for creating a two-part issue dedicated to Black Theater but I knew it was hers. She reluctantly penned the editor’s note for an issue that sold out immediately and resonated with readers.

In celebrating her life, her words and work are the best way to honor her.
Maitefa lived the Kwanzaa principles she wrote eloquently about in her book Kwanzaa From Holiday to Every Day. She was a deeply evolved and loving soul.
My heart and prayers are with the Angaza Family — please continue lifting her family up in the light.

Carolyn Butts, Publisher,
African Voices, Mai,
and the AV Family

Maitefa Angaza was an extraordinary woman of grace and brilliance who left an indelible mark on all who came to know her. Not only was she book smart, but she also possessed an emotional, social, and spiritual intelligence.

A loyal and supportive friend, she took African culture and sisterhood seriously. She was a consummate connoisseur of art from the African diaspora and kept her sisterhood and others abreast of art exhibits, live music, theatre, dance, literary conferences, etc.

Maitefa Angaza was well-known and liked by many because of her easy-going, sweet, and kind demeanor. However, when she needed to be fierce, she was always up to the task. She is already greatly missed.
-Anu Prestonia

I’ve known Maitefa and her husband throughout the years since her kids were little. She used to come to my fashion shows, sell her Kwanzaa book, and demonstrate all the principles to us. She was very low-key and humble. But she had been through many, many things. She has been through a few religious journeys and came out as a spiritualist–as a person who didn’t practice just one. She was a listener.

Maitefa wrote a story on me that went up on the front page of Our Time Press. I just told her my story about how I started, and she wrote it beautifully. You have to be a listener to be a journalist and an observer, too. My last time with her was in the hospital. I felt her humbleness. She knew I was there. She knew how I was and who I was, and I told her how thankful I was for her for all these years.

The contributions she had made not just to me, but to our own community, throughout her whole life. The fact that she had raised these wonderful sons who are artists and how she kept and took care of her husband when he was ill. She got through that and never stopped. She would try new things and do it in different ways. Her sons continue on. She’s given them the power of healing through creativity. I will always remember Maitefa as humble, lovely, and nurturing.
-Brenda Brunson-Bey

Beloved Comrade Maitefa Angaza Rest In Peace with the Ancestors!
My friend and former colleague at the legendary Brooklyn-based weekly The City Sun was the Managing Editor. She always made me improve my investigative news stories. We created “good trouble” so many times together that I became her deputy editor.

Oh, the memories of the great stories! She loved Africa, all Africana, books, and magazines as much as I did. The last time I saw her was sometime last year, fittingly, at a Barnes & Noble.
I know her space with the Ancestors has a couple of bookshelves straining with the weight of all those books she owned.
Farewell, Sister Maitefa. I love you!
-Milton Allimadi, Publisher, Black Star News

Maitefa Angaza brought a presence of excellence, intelligence and African people-centeredness to her work at Our Time Press.
The breadth of her knowledge, writing, and copy-editing skills that she brought to us made our publication better, and we are forever grateful.
-David Greaves, Publisher, Our Time Press