Maya Angelou

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• Born: 4 April 1928
• Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri
• Best Known As: Author of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Name at birth: Marguerite Johnson

Maya Angelou's 1969 autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, was nominated for a National Book Award and made her a symbol of pluck and pride for African-American women. In the 1950s Angelou had been a dancer and stage actress, and she was active in the civil rights movement (she became a coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, thanks to a request from Martin Luther King, Jr.). During the 1960s she spent five years in Africa, working as a journalist and a teacher. Angelou returned to the United States and in 1969 published I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. In 1972 she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her collection of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie. Since then, Angelou has continued teaching, writing, acting, producing, recording (she won Grammy Awards for the spoken word for the years 1993, 1995 and 2002) and collecting honorary degrees from across the United States. Since 1981 she has been the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. At Bill Clinton's request, Angelou wrote a poem -- On the Pulse of Morning -- for his 1993 inauguration as U.S. president.

Angelou was nominated for an Emmy for her role in the 1977 TV miniseries Roots, based on Alex Haley's novel... She also appeared with Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur in the 1993 film Poetic Justice.

Angelou, Maya (b. 1928), autobiographer, poet, playwright, director, producer, performance artist, educator, and winner of the Horatio Alger Award. A prolific author, with a successful career as a singer, actress, and dancer, Maya Angelou became one of America's most famous poets when she stood before the nation to deliver her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton's inauguration on 20 January 1993. At sixty-four years old, she was the first black woman to be asked to compose such a piece, and the second poet to be so recognized after the pairing of Robert Frost and John F. Kennedy in 1961. Born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, but raised in Arkansas, Angelou was a natural choice for the forty-second president and fellow Arkansan. The poem reflects a theme that is common to all of Angelou's published works, namely that human beings are more alike than different, and that a message of hope and inclusion is a most inspiring dream and ideal, something to be savored at such a moment of political change. She writes of the triumph of the human spirit over hardship and adversity. Her voice speaks of healing and reconciliation, and she is a willing symbol for the American nation on the eve of the twenty-first century.

The great-granddaughter of a slave-born Arkansas woman, Angelou has had a rich and varied life, and her serial autobiography intertwines in a harmonious way her individual experiences with the collective social history of African Americans. As she recounts in the first volume of her serial autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), Angelou spent her first three years in California. Her father, Bailey Johnson, was a navy cook and her mother, Vivian Baxter, a glamorous and dynamic woman, was a sometime nightclub performer and owner of a large rooming house in San Francisco in the 1940s. When Angelou's parents divorced in the early 1930s, her father sent her and her brother Bailey by train, with name tags on their wrists, to live with his mother, Momma Henderson, who ran the only black-owned general store in Stamps, Arkansas. Angelou writes eloquently of the customs and harsh circumstances of life in the segregated pre-civil rights South, and of the dignity and mutual support that rural blacks extended to one another during the Depression. After Stamps came time in St. Louis with her mother's family, the discovery of urban greed and alienation, and her rape at age eight, a trauma that left her mute for several years. Upon her return to the South, she buried herself in the cocoon of her grandmother's store and in her imagination, and read widely. Books became her lifeline and prepared the terrain for her artistic and literary career. She moved back to California as a teenager, graduated from high school, and gave birth to her only child, Guy Johnson, himself a poet. In the 1960s, Angelou was active in the civil rights movement in the United States and abroad, and became briefly involved with African activist Vusumzi Make. She has been married and divorced.

By the time she was in her early twenties, Angelou had worked at a variety of odd jobs, as a waitress, a cook, and a streetcar conductor, flirting briefly with prostitution and drug addiction. She then worked as a stage performer, establishing a reputation among the avant-garde of the early 1950s, and appearing in Porgy and Bess on a twenty-two-nation tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department in 1954–1955. She studied dance with Martha Graham. Off-Broadway, she acted in Jean Genet's The Blacks in 1960. She worked as an associate editor for the Arab Observer in Cairo, Egypt, in 1961–1962 and as a writer for the Ghanaian Times and the Ghanaian Broadcasting Corporation in 1964–1966. She appeared in Mother Courage at the University of Ghana in 1964 and made her Broadway debut in Look Away in 1973. She directed her own play, And Still I Rise, in California in 1976. In 1977, she had a part in the television adaptation of Alex Haley's Roots and received an Emmy Award nomination for best supporting actress. She has lectured on campuses, been a guest on many talk shows, and continues to be an extremely popular speaker. She is currently the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

Her autobiographical fictions include Gather Together in My Name (1974) and Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1976), which received moderate critical praise; and The Heart of a Woman (1981) and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), which were acclaimed as important works covering exciting periods in African American and African history, the civil rights marches, and the era of decolonization. These narratives survey the difficulties and personal triumphs of a remarkable woman with a keen understanding of the power of language to affect change, and of the role of “image making” in the self-representation of groups who have been historically oppressed. In her interview with Claudia Tate, Angelou acknowledged her debt to the black women writers who were her predecessors, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and Zora Neale Hurston in particular, and to her friend James Bald-win who encouraged her to write after hearing her childhood stories. Angelou's personal experiences typify the changes that have occurred in America in the course of her lifetime. She consciously strives to be the kind of writer who brings people and traditions together and who appeals to the nobler sentiments of her readers. She is a humanist and a protean personality who has, against all odds, made her own life into the great American success story. Her works have a profound resonance with a long tradition that begins with the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century slave narratives. Her style captures the cadences and aspirations of African American women whose strength she celebrates. She has been instrumental in helping refo-cus attention on black women's voices.

Bibliography

• Claudia Tate, Black Women Writers at Work, 1983, pp. 1–38.
• Selwyn Cudjoe, “Maya Angelou and the Autobiographical Statement,” in Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical Evaluation, ed. Mari Evans, 1984, pp. 6–24.
• Lynn Z. Bloom, “Maya Angelou,” in DLB, vol. 38, Afro-American Writers after 1955: Dramatists and Prose Writers, eds. Thadious M. Davis and Trudier Harris, 1985, pp. 3–12.
• Françoise Lionnet, “Con Artists and Storytellers: Maya Angelou's Problematic Sense of Audience,” in Autobiographical Voices: Race, Gender, Self Portraiture, 1989, pp. 130–166.
• Mary Jane Lupton, Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion, 1998

Françoise Lionnet

Maya Angelou (born 1928) - author, poet, play wright, stage and screen performer, and director - is best known for her autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1970), which recalls a young African American woman's discovery of her self-confidence.

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Growing up in rural Stamps, Arkansas, with her brother, Bailey, she lived with her pious grandmother, who owned a general store. She attended public schools in Arkansas and California, and became San Francisco's first female streetcar conductor. Later she studied dance with Martha Graham and drama with Frank Silvera, and went on to a career in theater. She appeared in Porgy and Bess, which toured 22 countries; on Broadway in Look Away; and in several off-Broadway plays, including Cabaret for Freedom, which she wrote in collaboration with Godfrey Cambridge.

During the early 1960s, Angelou lived in Egypt, where she was the associate editor of The Arab Observer in Cairo. During this time, she also contributed articles to The Ghanaian Times and was featured on the Ghanaian Broadcasting Corporation programming in Accra. During the mid-1960s, she became assistant administrator of the School of Music and Drama at the University of Ghana. She was the feature editor of the African Review in Accra from 1964 to 1966. During this time she served as northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When she returned to the United States, Angelou worked as writer-producer for 20th Century-Fox Television, from which her full-length feature film Sisters, Sisters received critical acclaim. In addition, she wrote the screenplays Georgia, Georgia and All Day Long along with the television scripts for Sister, Sister and the series premiere of Brewster Place. She wrote, produced, and hosted the NET public broadcasting series Blacks! Blues! Black! Angelou also costarred in the motion picture How to Make an American Quilt in 1995.

Angelou has taught at several American colleges and universities, including the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Kansas, Wichita State University, and California State University at Sacramento. Since the early 1980s, she has been Reynolds Professor and writer-in-residence at Wake Forest University.

Angelou has been a prolific poet for decades. Her collections include Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971); Oh Pray My Wings Are Going to Fit Me Well (1975); And Still I Rise (1976), which was produced as a choreo-poem on Off-Broadway in 1979; and Shaker, Why Don't You Sing (1983) Poems: Maya Angelou (1986); Life Doesn't Frighten Me, illustrated by celebrated New York artist Jean Michel Basquiat (1993); On the Pulse of the Morning (1993), recited at Bill Clinton's first Presidential Inauguration; Soul Looks Back in Wonder (1994); and I Shall Not Be Moved (1997), her first book of poetry in over 10 years.

Angelou's poetry is fashioned almost entirely of short lyrics and jazzy rhythms. Although her poetry has contributed to her reputation and is especially popular among young people, most commentators reserve their highest praise for her prose. Angelou's dependence on alliteration, her heavy use of short lines, and her conventional vocabulary has led several critics to declare her poetry superficial and devoid of her celebrated humor. Other reviewers, however, praise her poetic style as refreshing and graceful. They also laud Angelou for addressing social and political issues relevant to African Americans and for challenging the validity of traditional American values and myths. For example, Angelou directed national attention to humanitarian concerns with her poem "On the Pulse of the Morning," which she recited at the 1993 inauguration of President Bill Clinton. In this poem, Angelou calls for recognition of the human failings pervading American history and an renewed national commitment to unity and social improvement.

Although Angelou began her literary career as a poet, she is well known for her five autobiographical works, which depict sequential periods of her life. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) is about Marguerite Johnson and her brother Bailey growing up in Arkansas. It chronicles Angelou's life up to age sixteen, providing a child's perspective of the perplexing world of adults. Although her grandmother instilled pride and confidence in her, her self-image was shattered when she was raped at the age of eight by her mother's boyfriend. Angelou was so devastated by the attack that she refused to speak for approximately five years. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings concludes with Angelou having regained self-esteem and caring for her newborn son, Guy. In addition to being a trenchant account of an African American girl's coming-of-age, this work affords insights into the social and political tensions of the 1930s. Sidonie Ann Smith echoed many critics when she wrote: "Angelou's genius as a writer is her ability to recapture the texture of the way of life in the texture of its idioms, its idiosyncratic vocabulary and especially in its process of image-making."

Her next autobiographical work, Gather Together in My Name, (1974) covers the period immediately after the birth of her son Guy and depicts her valiant struggle to care for him as a single parent. Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976) describes Angelou's stage debut and concludes with her return from the international tour of Porgy and Bess. The Heart of A Woman (1981) portrays the mature Angelou becoming more comfortable with her creativity and her success. All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986) recalls her four-year stay in Ghana.

Widely celebrated by popular audiences and critics, Angelou has a long roster of recognitions, including: a nomination for National Book Award, 1970, for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; a Yale University fellowship, 1970; a Pulitzer Prize nomination, 1972, for Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie; an Antoinette Perry ("Tony" ) Award nomination from League of New York Theatres and Producers, 1973, for performance in Look Away; Rockefeller Foundation scholar in Italy, 1975; honorary degrees from Smith College, 1975, Mills College, 1975, Lawrence University, 1976, and Wake Forest University, 1977; a Tony Award nomination for best supporting actress, 1977, for Roots; and the North Carolina Award in Literature, 1987. In the 1970s she was appointed to the Bicentennial Commission by President Gerald Ford, and the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year by Jimmy Carter. She was also named Woman of the Year in Communications by Ladies' Home Journal, 1976; and named one of the top one hundred most influential women by Ladies' Home Journal, 1983.

Angelou's autobiographical works have an important place in the African American tradition of personal narrative, and they continue to garner praise for their honesty and moving sense of dignity. Although an accomplished poet and dramatist, Angelou is dedicated to the art of autobiography. Angelou explained that she is "not afraid of the ties [between past and present]. I cherish them, rather. It's the vulnerability … it's allowing oneself to be hypnotized. That's frightening because we have no defenses, nothing. We've slipped down the well and every side is slippery. And how on earth are you going to come out? That's scary. But I've chosen it, and I've chosen this mode as my mode."

Further Reading

For biographical information, see the following periodical pieces: "The African-American Scholar Interviews: Maya Angelou," in the African-American Scholar (January/February 1977); "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," in Ebony (April 1970); and Mary Helen Washington, "Their Fiction Becomes Our Reality," in African-American World (August 1974). For critical information see: Estelle C. Jelinek, "In Search of the African-American Female Self: African-American Women's Autobiographies and Ethnicity," in Women's Autobiography (1980); Claudia Tate, African-American Women Writers at Work (1983); Carol E. Neubauer, "Displacement and Autobiographical Style in Maya Angelou's The Heart of a Woman," in African-American Literature Forum (1983); and Mari Evans, "Maya Angelou" in African-American Women Writers, 1950-1980 (1983).

Additional information can be found in "Maya-ness is Next to Godliness," in GQ (July 1995) and "Maya Angelou: A Celebrated Poet Issues a Call to Arms to the Nation's Artists," in Mother Jones (May/June 1995).

novelist; performer

Personal Information

Born Marguerite Johnson, April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, MO; daughter of Bailey and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson; married Tosh Angelos (divorced c. 1952); married Paul Du Feu, December 1973 (divorced); children: Guy Johnson.
Education: Attended public schools in Arkansas and California.
Memberships: American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), Directors Guild of America, Actors Equity, Harlem Writers Guild, American Film Institute, Women's Prison Association.

Career

Author, poet, playwright, professional stage and screen producer, director, and performer, and singer. Taught modern dance at Habima Theatre, Tel Aviv, Israel, and the Rome Opera House, Rome, Italy. Appeared in Porgy and Bess on twenty-two-nation tour sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, 1954-55; appeared in Off-Broadway plays Calypso Heatwave, 1957, and The Blacks, 1960; produced and performed in Cabaret for Freedom, with Godfrey Cambridge, Off-Broadway, 1960; University of Ghana, Institute of African Studies, Legon-Accra, Ghana, assistant administrator of School of Music and Drama, 1963-66; appeared in Mother Courage at University of Ghana, 1964, and in Meda in Hollywood, 1966; made Broadway debut in Look Away, 1973; directed film All Day Long, 1974, and Down in the Delta, Miramax, 1998; directed her play And Still I Rise in California, 1976; directed Errol John's Moon on a Rainbow Shawl in London, England, 1988; appeared in film Roots, 1977. Television narrator, interviewer, and host for Afro-American specials and theatre series, 1972. Lecturer at University of California, Los Angeles, 1966; writer in residence at University of Kansas, 1970; distinguished visiting professor at Wake Forest University, 1974, Wichita State University, 1974, and California State University, Sacramento, 1974; professor at Wake Forest University, 1981--. Northern coordinator of Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1959-60; appointed member of American Revolution Bicentennial Council by President Gerald R. Ford, 1975-76; member of National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year.

Life's Work

The life experiences of the richly talented Maya Angelou--author, poet, actress, singer, dancer, playwright, director, producer--are the cornerstone of her most acclaimed work, a multi-volume autobiography that traces the foundations of her identity as a twentieth-century American black woman. Beginning with the best-selling I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou's autobiographical books chart her beginnings in rural segregated Arkansas and urban St. Louis, her turbulent adolescence in California, and through her adult triumphs as a performing artist and writer, her work in the Civil Rights Movement, and her travels to Africa. "One of the geniuses of Afro- American serial autobiography," according to Houston A. Baker in the New York Times Book Review, Angelou has been praised for the rich and insightful prose of her narratives and for offering what many observers feel is an indispensable record of black experience. Author James Baldwin wrote on the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: "This testimony from a Black sister marks the beginning of a new era in the minds and hearts and lives of all Black men and women."

Born in Long Beach, California, Angelou was sent at the age of three to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, an event that served as the starting point for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The book depicts Angelou's early years in Stamps, where her grandmother ran the town's only black-owned general store, and is a revealing portrait of the customs and harsh circumstances of black life in the segregated South. Economic hardship, murderous hate, and ingrained denigration were part of daily life in Stamps, and Angelou translates their impact on her early years. "If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat," she wrote in the book. "It is an unnecessary insult."

Angelou also spent part of her youth in St. Louis with her mother--a glamorous and dynamic figure who occasionally worked as a nightclub performer. The book concludes with Angelou's early adolescent years in California and the birth of her illegitimate son, Guy. Much of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is grim--particularly Angelou's rape at the age of eight--yet it marks her distinct ability to recollect personal truth through insightful and powerful images, sights, and language. Angelou earned high marks from critics who praised her narrative skills and eloquent prose. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in the New York Times called I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings "a carefully wrought, simultaneously touching and comic memoir ... [the] beauty [of which] is not in the story but in the telling." Sidonie Ann Smith wrote in the Southern Humanities Review that Angelou's "genius as a writer is her ability to recapture the texture of the way of life in the texture of its idioms, its idiosyncratic vocabulary and especially in its process of image-making.... That [Angelou] chooses to recreate the past in its own sounds suggests to the reader that she accepts the past and recognizes its beauty and its ugliness, its assets and its liabilities, its strength and its weakness.... Ultimately Maya Angelou's style testifies to her reaffirmation of self-acceptance, [which] she achieves within the pattern of the autobiography."

Angelou's next volume of autobiography, Gather Together in My Name, begins with Angelou leaving her mother's home in California at the age of seventeen to forge an independent life with her infant son. The book describes the chaotic years that follow, during which Angelou worked a variety of jobs--cook, waitress, brothel madam--and also suffered a brief drug addiction. Selwyn R. Cudjoe in Black Women Writers (1950-1980) noted that the book describes how "rural dignity gives way to the alienation and destruction of urban life.... The violation which began in Caged Bird takes on a much sharper focus in Gather Together.... The author is still concerned with the question of what it means to be Black and female in America, but her development is ... subjected to certain social forces which assault the black woman with unusual intensity." Critics again praised Angelou's skillful prose, but also noted that the book lacked a certain cohesiveness. Lynn Sukenick in the Village Voice called the book "sculpted, concise, rich with flavor and surprises, exuding a natural confidence and command." Sukenick added, however, that "in the tone of the book ... [Angelou's] refusal to let her earlier self get off easy, and the self-mockery which is her means to honesty, finally becomes in itself a glossing over.... It eventually becomes a tic and a substitute for a deeper look." Sondra O'Neale similarly commented in Black Women Writers that "the writing flows and shimmers with beauty; only the rigorous, coherent and meaningful organization of experience is missing."

In the 1950s Angelou embarked upon a career as a stage performer, working as an actress, singer, and dancer. Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas recounts Angelou's transition from late adolescence to early adulthood, when she began to define herself as a performing artist. She toured Europe with a U.S. State Department production of the black opera Porgy and Bess in the mid 1950s, a period that became a turning point in her life. While with the theater company Angelou began to link the turmoil of her past with her identity as a black adult, and, as Cudjoe commented, the book documents the "personal triumph of [a] remarkable black woman." Cudjoe wrote: "The pride which she takes in her company's professionalism, their discipline onstage, and the wellspring of spirituality that the opera emoted, all seem to conduce toward an organic harmony of her personal history as it intertwined with the social history of her people."

In The Heart of a Woman Angelou covers the late 1950s and early 1960s, a period in which black artists in the United States were increasingly addressing racial abuse and black liberation. In the book Angelou herself makes a decision to move away from show business in order to, as she describes it, "take on the responsibility of making [people] think. [It] was the time to demonstrate my own seriousness." She joined a group called the Harlem Writers Guild and in 1960 co-wrote the musical revue Cabaret for Freedom, which opened in New York City. Later that year she was asked by Martin Luther King, Jr., to become northern coordinator for the then-fledgling civil rights organization he had helped found, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The Heart of a Woman concludes with Angelou and her son, Guy, moving to Africa, where she first worked for an English-language newsweekly in Cairo, and then at the University of Ghana. Dictionary of Literary Biography contributor Lynn Z. Bloom called The Heart of a Woman a particularly inspired book. Angelou's "enlarged focus and clear vision transcend the particulars," Bloom wrote, and like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the book presents "a fascinating universality of perspective and psychological depth."

Angelou more fully explored her Africa experience in her fifth book, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, of which a reviewer in Time noted that the author "meditates on the search for historical and spiritual roots." According to Baker in the New York Times Book Review, one of the interesting aspects that Angelou explores is her realization that Africa is "a homeland that refuses to become 'home.' Though independence and prosperity make Ghana a festival in black, there is no point of connection between Miss Angelou and what she calls the 'soul' of Africa." Barbara T. Christian likewise observed in the Chicago Tribune Book World that Angelou's "sojourn in Africa strengthens her bonds to her ancestral home even as she concretely experiences her distinctiveness as an Afro-American." Wanda Coleman in the Los Angeles Times Book Review called All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes "an important document drawing more much-needed attention to the hidden history of a people both African and American."

Commenting on Angelou's autobiographical writings, O'Neale wrote that one of the author's overall achievements is the elevation of the black female in literature. "One who has made her life her message and whose message to all aspiring Black women is the reconstruction of her experiential 'self,' is Maya Angelou. With the wide public and critical reception of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in the early seventies, Angelou bridged the gap between life and art, a step that is essential if Black women are to be deservedly credited with the mammoth and creative feat of noneffacing survival." Cudjoe similarly commented that Angelou's autobiographies rescue not only her personal history, but the collective history of all black women: "It is in response to these specific concerns that Maya Angelou offered her autobiographical statements, presenting a powerful, authentic and pro- found signification of the condition of Afro-American womanhood in her quest for understanding and love rather than for bitterness and despair. Her work is a triumph in the articulation of truth in simple, forthright terms."

Angelou commented to Claudia Tate in Black Women Writers at Work on the special importance of images for black women. "Image making is very important for every human being. It is especially important for black American women in that we are, by being black, a minority in the United States, and by being female, the less powerful of the genders.... If we look out of our eyes at the immediate world around us, we see whites and males in dominant roles. We need to see our mothers, aunts, our sisters, and grandmothers." Angelou also described the awareness and responsibility she feels in providing images for black women: "In one way, it means all the work, all the loneliness and discipline my work exacts, demands, is not in vain. It also means, in a more atavistic, absolutely internal way, that I can never die. It's like living through children. So when I approach a piece of work, that is in my approach, whether it's a poem that might appear frivolous or is a serious piece. In my approach I take as fact that my work will be carried on."

In addition to her books of autobiography, Angelou has written several volumes of poetry that further explore the South, racial confrontation, and the triumph of black people against overwhelming odds. According to Tate, Angelou's poems "are characterized by a spontaneous joyfulness and an indomitable spirit to survive." Among her many accomplishments, Angelou wrote the screenplay and score for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia, and in 1979 penned the screen adaptation of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She has made numerous television appearances, including her 1977 role in the landmark television movie, Roots, and as a guest on many talk shows.

Maya Angelou's writings and speeches which stress the hopeful innocence of children has earned her wide acclaim and many fans. Such devoted enthusiasts include Oprah Winfrey and President Bill Clinton, who invited Angelou to deliver a poem at his inauguration in 1993. Angelou became the first African American to read a poem at a presidential inauguration. The poem, "On the Pulse of Morning," electrified the audience and was published in a hardcover edition of Angelou's poetry.

Because of her moving literary works and devotion to the power of expression, Maya Angelou was awarded the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 1993 and the first Medal of Distinction from the University of Hawaii Board of Regents in 1994.

Angelou, with her booming laughter and deep rhythmic voice, has always been a symbol of strength and leadership for the plight of women and the underprivileged. She was named keynote speaker for the Chicago Foundation for Women in 1994. In September of 1996, Angelou and Camille Cosby joined to help African American women chart new directions in their lives with a $30 million dollar fund raising campaign for the National Council of Negro Women.

In 1995, Angelou starred in the film How to Make an American Quilt with Winona Ryder and Ellen Burstyn. She also delivered her poem "A Brave and Startling Truth" at the United Nations 50th birthday bash in San Francisco. Angelou contributed short stories to the HBO program America's Dream, which aired during Black History Month in 1996 and collaborated with musicians Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson on their 1996 release Been Found. She also wrote the lyrics to the musical King, which premiered in Washington DC on January 19, 1997 as part of the inaugural festivities for President Bill Clinton. In 1998, she directed a motion picture entitled Down in the Delta.

Fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and Fanti, a language of southern Ghana, Angelou is a popular lecturer and tours throughout the United States.

Awards

Nominated for National Book Award, 1970, for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings; Yale University fellowship, 1970; Pulitzer Prize nomination, 1972, for Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie; Antoinette Perry ("Tony") Award nomination from League of New York Theatres and Producers, 1973, for performance in Look Away; Rockefeller Foundation scholar in Italy, 1975; honorary degrees from Smith College, 1975, Mills College, 1975, Lawrence University, 1976, and Wake Forest University, 1977; named Woman of the Year in Communications by Ladies' Home Journal, 1976; Tony Award nomination for best supporting actress, 1977, for Roots; named one of the top one hundred most influential women by Ladies Home Journal, 1983; North Carolina Award in Literature, 1987; named Woman of the Year by Essence magazine, 1992; named Distinguished Woman of North Carolina, 1992; recipient, Horatio Alger Award, 1992; Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Non-Traditional Album, 1994, for recording of "On The Pulse of the Morning"; Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration, 1994, for Soul Looks Back in Wonder.

Works

Writings

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Random House, 1970.
• Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, Random House, 1971.
• Gather Together in My Name, Random House, 1974.
• O Pray My Wings are Gonna Fit Me Well, Random House, 1975.
• Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, Random House, 1976.
• And Still I Rise New York, Random House, 1978.
• The Heart of a Woman, Random House, 1981 Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? Random House, 1983.
• All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, Random House, 1986.
• Now Sheba Sings the Song, Dutton/Dial, 1987.
• I Shall Not Be Moved, Random House, 1990 Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, Random House, 1993.
• Kofi and His Magic, Crown Publishing Group, 1996.
• Even the Stars Look Lonesome (essays), Random House, 1997.
• Plays .
• (With Godfrey Cambridge) Cabaret for Freedom (musical revue), produced at Village Gate, New York City, 1960.
• The Least of These, produced in Los Angeles, 1966.
• Ajax (adaptation of Sophocles's Ajax), produced at the Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1974.
• And Still I Rise, produced in Oakland, Calif., 1976.
• King, 1997.
• Film and television scripts .
• Blacks, Blues, Black (ten television programs), National Educational Television, 1968.
• Georgia, Georgia (film), Cinerama, 1972.
• All Day Long, American Film Institute, 1974.
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (film), 1979.
• Sister, Sister, NBC-TV, 1982.
• Three-Way Choice, CBS-TV.
• How to Make an American Quilt, (film), 1995.
• Also author of the fiction work Mrs. Flowers: A Moment of Friendship, Redpath Press, 1986. Contributor of articles, short stories, and poems to periodicals, and of material to books.

Further Reading

Periodicals

• Black Scholar, Summer 1982.
• Boston Globe, January 20, 1997.
• Chicago Tribune, February 11, 1996; January 12, 1997.
• Chicago Tribune Book World, March 23, 1986.
• Harper's Bazaar, November 1972.
• Los Angeles Times, February 10, 1996.
• Los Angeles Times Book Review, April 13, 1986; August 9, 1987.
• New York Times, February 25, 1970; October 6, 1995.
• New York Times Book Review, June 16, 1974; May 11, 1986.
• Southern Humanities Review, Fall 1973.
• Time, March 31, 1986.
• USA Today, June 26, 1995; September 24, 1996.
• Village Voice, July 11, 1974; October 28, 1981.
• Washington Post, January 5, 1995; September 21, 1996.
• Washington Post Book World, October 4, 1981; June 26, 1983; May 11, 1986.

— Michael E. Mueller and David Oblender

For more information on Maya Angelou, visit Britannica.com.

Quotes:

"We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated."

"Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations."

"The sadness of the women's movement is that they don't allow the necessity of love. See, I don't personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed."

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."

"I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed."

"My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return."

See more famous quotes by Maya Angelou

• Born: April 04, 1928, St. Louis, MO
• Active: '50s
• Genres: Vocal Music
• Instrument: Vocals
• Representative Albums: "Black Pearls: The Poetry of Maya Angelou," "Miss Calypso"
• Representative Songs: "Been Found," "To a Man," "Since Me Man Has Done Gone an"

Biography

Maya Angelou
The groundbreaking of the African Burial Ground, October 5, 2007
Born	Marguerite Ann Johnson April 4, 1928 (1928-04-04) (age 81) Saint Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Occupation	Poet, dancer, film producer, television producer, playwright, film director, author, actress
Nationality	American
Official website

Maya Angelou (pronounced /ˈmaɪ.ə ˈændʒəloʊ/;^[1] born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928)^[2] is an American autobiographer and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adulthood experiences.^[3] The first, best-known, and most highly acclaimed, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), focuses on the first seventeen years of her life, brought her international recognition, and was nominated for a National Book Award.

Angelou has had a long and varied career, holding jobs such as fry cook, dancer, actress, journalist, educator, television producer, and film director. She was a member of the Harlem Writers Guild in the late 1950s. She was active in the Civil Rights movement, and served as Northern Coordinator of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Angelou has been highly honored for her body of work, including being awarded over 30 honorary degrees and the nomination of a Pulitzer Prize for her 1971 volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie.^[4] Since the 1990s, she has had a busy career on the lecture circuit, making about 80 appearances a year. Since 1991, Angelou has taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, as recipient of the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. In 1993, she recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. In 1995, she was recognized for having the longest-running record (two years) on The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Bestseller List.

With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou was heralded as a new kind of memoirist, one of the first African American women who was able to publicly discuss her personal life. She became recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for blacks and women. Angelou's use of fiction-writing techniques often result in the placement of her books into the genre of autobiographical fiction, but they are better characterized as autobiographies.^[5] Angelou has made a deliberate attempt through her work to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre. Although her books have been used extensively in the classroom, they have also been challenged or banned in schools and libraries. Her books and poetry have covered themes such as identity, family, and racism.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Adulthood and early career 3 Later career 4 Angelou's work 5 Reception and legacy 5.1 Influence 5.2 Critical reception 5.3 Uses in education 6 Style and genre 7 Themes in Angelou's autobiographies 7.1 Identity 7.2 Family 7.3 Racism 8 Honors and awards 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links

Early years

Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928 to Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a real estate agent, trained surgical nurse, and later a merchant marine. Angelou's older brother, Bailey Jr., called her "Maya", derived from his nickname for her, "my-a-sister".^[6] The details of Angelou's life, although described in her six autobiographies and in numerous interviews, speeches, and articles, tend to be inconsistent. Her biographer, Mary Jane Lupton, when speaking about these inconsistencies, has explained that when Angelou has spoken about her life, she has done so eloquently but informally and "with no time chart in front of her".^[7]

In 2008, Angelou's family history was profiled on the PBS series African American Lives 2. A DNA test showed that she was descended from the Mende people of West Africa.^[8] The program's research focused on Angelou's maternal great-grandmother, Mary Lee, emancipated after the Civil War. Before the program's investigation, little was known about Lee's background because she prohibited anyone from knowing about it. Lee became pregnant by her former owner, a white man named John Savin, who forced Lee to sign a false statement accusing another man of being the father. A grand jury indicted Savin for forcing Lee to commit perjury, and despite discovering that Savin was the father, found him not guilty. Lee was sent to the Clinton County, Missouri poorhouse with her daughter, who became Angelou's grandmother, Marguerite Baxter. Angelou's reaction after learning this information was, "That poor little black girl, physically and mentally bruised."^[9]

William Shakespeare, whom Angelou "met and fell in love with" as a child.^[10]

Angelou's first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, recounts the first 17 years of her life. When Angelou was three and her brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage" ended, and their father sent them alone by train to live with his mother, Annie Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas.^[11] Henderson prospered financially during the Great Depression and World War II because the general store she owned sold basic commodities and because "she made wise and honest investments".^[12] Four years later, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning"^[13] and returned them to their mother's care in St. Louis. At age eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. She confessed it to her brother, who told the rest of their family. Freeman was found guilty, but was jailed for one day. Four days after his release, he was found kicked to death, probably by Angelou's uncles. Angelou became mute, believing, as she has stated, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone..."^[14] She remained nearly mute for five years.^[15]

Shortly after Freeman's murder, Angelou and her brother were sent back to their grandmother once again. Angelou credited Mrs. Bertha Flowers, a teacher and friend of Angelou's family, with helping her speak again. Mrs. Flowers introduced her to classical literature. The authors included Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Douglas Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, as well as black female artists like Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset.^[16] When Angelou was 13, she and her brother returned to live with her mother in San Francisco, California. During World War II, she attended George Washington High School and studied dance and drama on a scholarship at the California Labor School. Before graduating, she worked as the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco.^[17] Three weeks after completing school, she gave birth to her son, Clyde, who also became a poet.^[18] At the end of Angelou's third autobiography, Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, her son announced that he wanted to be called "Guy Johnson" and trained his friends and family to accept it.^[19]

Angelou's second autobiography, Gather Together in My Name, recounts her life from age 17 to 19. As Lupton stated, this book "depicts a single mother's slide down the social ladder into poverty and crime."^[20] Angelou made her living working in various jobs, including prostitution and as the madame of a brothel. In those years, Angelou went through a series of relationships, occupations, and cities as she attempted to raise her son without the benefit of job training or advanced education. Lupton stated, "Nevertheless, she was able to survive through trial and error, while at the same time defining herself in terms of being a black woman".^[19] Angelou learned how to perform professionally for live audiences, and exhibited a natural dancing ability and talent.

Adulthood and early career

As described in her third autobiography, Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, Angelou married Greek sailor Tosh Angelos in 1952; the marriage ended in divorce after three years.^[21] Although it is not known exactly how many times Angelou has been married—she has never clarified, "for fear of sounding frivolous"^[22]—it has been at least three times.^[23] Up to that point, she called herself "Marguerite Johnson", or "Rita", but changed her professional name to "Maya Angelou" when her managers at San Francisco nightclub The Purple Onion strongly suggested that she adopt a "more theatrical" name that captured the feel of her Calypso dance performances.^[12][24]

She toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess in 1954–1955, studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with choreographer Alvin Ailey on television variety shows, and recorded her first record album, Miss Calypso, in 1957. She co-created a dance team, "Al and Rita", with Ailey, who combined elements of modern dance, ballet, and West African tribal dancing.^[25] Angelou's third autobiography, Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, covered her early dancing and singing career. One of the themes of this book was the conflict she felt between her desire to be a good mother and a successful performer, a situation "very familiar to mothers with careers".^[26]

Paperback book cover illustration, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

In the late 1950s, she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she met a number of important African American authors, including her friend and mentor James Baldwin. After hearing civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak for the first time in 1960, she was inspired to join the Civil Rights movement. She organized several benefits for him, and he named her Northern Coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In the early 1960s, Angelou briefly lived with South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make; she moved with him and her son Guy to Cairo, Egypt, where she became an associate editor at the weekly newspaper The Arab Observer. In 1962, her relationship with Make ended, and she and Guy moved to Ghana. She became an assistant administrator and instructor at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama, was a feature editor for The African Review, and acted and wrote plays.^[17][27] In her travels Angelou learned French, Spanish, and Fante.^[27]

Angelou became close friends with Malcolm X in Ghana and returned to the US in 1964 to help him build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of African American Unity; he was assassinated shortly afterward. In 1968, King asked her to organize a march, but he too was assassinated, on her birthday (April 4). Instead of celebrating her birthday, she sent flowers to King's widow, Coretta Scott King, until King's death in 2006.^[28][29] Inspired by a meeting with her friend James Baldwin, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and Feiffer's wife Judy, Angelou dealt with her grief by writing her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, in 1969, which brought her international recognition and acclaim.^[30]

Later career

In 1973, Angelou married Paul du Feu, a British-born carpenter and remodeler, and moved with him and her son to Sonoma, California. The years to follow were some of Angelou's most productive years as a writer and poet. She composed music for movies, wrote articles, short stories, and poetry for several magazines, continued to write autobiographies, produced plays, lectured at universities throughout the country, and served on various committees. She appeared in a supporting role in the television mini-series Roots in 1977, wrote for television, and composed songs for Roberta Flack.^[31] Her screenplay, Georgia, Georgia, was the first original script by a black woman to be produced.^[32] It was during this time, in the late '70s, that Angelou met Oprah Winfrey when Winfrey was a TV anchor in Baltimore, Maryland; Angelou would later become Winfrey's friend and mentor.^[28][33]

Angelou divorced de Feu and returned to the southern United States in 1981, where she accepted the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.^[31] In 1993, she recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.^[34] Also in 1993, Angelou's poems were featured in the Janet Jackson/John Singleton film Poetic Justice, in which Angelou also made a brief appearance.^[35]

Maya Angelou reciting her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993

Since the 1990s, Angelou has actively participated in the lecture circuit. In 1993, she made approximately 80 speaking appearances.^[34] When speaking, she tended to sit on a stool and would entertain the audience for approximately one hour, reciting poems by memory and following a flexible outline.^[36] Her most common speaking engagements would occur on college campuses; the events tended to be sold out far in advance.^[37] In 1997, over 2,000 tickets were sold when she spoke at the Woman's Foundation in San Francisco. By the early 2000s, Angelou traveled to her speaking engagements and book tour stops by tour bus. She "gave up flying, unless it is really vital ... not because she was afraid, but because she was fed up with the hassle of celebrity".^[22] In 2008, she charged approximately US$43,000 per engagement.^[38]

Starting in March 1999, a poem called "Clothes" that was attributed to Angelou circulated on the Internet. The poem makes a number of false and defamatory claims labeling various clothing manufacturers (such as FUBU, Timberland, and Eckō lines) as racists and/or members of the KKK. Angelou has denied on her website that she wrote the poem.^[39][40] In 2002, Angelou lent her name and writings to a line of products from the Hallmark Greeting Card Company.^[41] Also in 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Maya Angelou on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.^[42]

In 2006, Angelou became a radio talk show host for the first time, hosting a weekly show for XM Satellite Radio's Oprah & Friends channel.^[43] Also in 2006, singer Nancy Wilson set Angelou's poem "My Life Has Turned to Blue" to music in the title track of her CD, "Turned to Blue".^[44] In 2007, she became the first African-American woman and living poet to be featured in the Poetry for Young People series of books from Sterling Publishing.^[45]

In 1998, Angelou went on her first cruise, a gift of her friend Winfrey, in celebration of her 70th birthday. Over 150 people were in attendance.^[29] In April 2008, Angelou had three parties to celebrate her 80th birthday. A "pricey soiree" that included a red carpet and "a guest list of celebrities" was held in Atlanta, Georgia to benefit a YMCA youth center named after her. There was also a city-wide event celebrated by Winston-Salem, North Carolina,^[46] and Winfrey hosted "an extravagant 80th birthday celebration" at Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. She was serenaded by Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, Jessye Norman, and Ashford & Simpson.^[36] While attending a Unity Church service in Miami, Florida in 2005, Angelou decided to "go into a kind of religious school and study" during her 80th year.^[47]

Angelou became involved in US presidential politics in 2008 by placing her public support behind Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, despite her good friend Winfrey's public support of Barack Obama.^[28] Prior to the January Democratic primary in South Carolina, the Clinton campaign ran radio ads featuring Angelou's endorsement of Clinton.^[48] The ads were part of the Clinton campaign's effort to rally support in the black community.^[49] Obama won the South Carolina primary; finishing 29 points ahead of Clinton and taking 80% of the black vote.^[50] When Clinton's campaign ended, Angelou put her support behind Obama.^[51] When Obama won the election and became the first African American president of the United States, she stated, "We are growing up beyond the idiocies of racism and sexism".^[52] In 2009, Angelou, who owned a home in Harlem, became involved, along with several other celebrities and "prominent supporters of gay rights",^[53] in the campaign supporting a same-sex marriage bill in New York state.

In early October 2009, the gossip website TMZ and the social networking site Twitter reported that Angelou was taken to a hospital in Los Angeles. The report turned out to be false; Angelou was due to attend a event there, but instead had remained at her home in St. Louis.^[54]

Angelou's work

Main article: Works of Maya Angelou

Although Angelou wrote her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, without the intention of writing a series,^[17] she went on to write five additional volumes. They are distinct in style and narration. In addition, the volumes "stretch over time and place",^[55] from Arkansas to Africa and back to the US. They take place from the beginnings of World War II to King's assassination.^[55] Like Caged Bird, the events in these books are episodic and crafted like a series of short stories, but do not follow a strict chronology. Later books in the series include Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), and A Song Flung Up To Heaven (2002). Critics have tended to judge Angelou's subsequent autobiographies "in light of the first",^[17] with Caged Bird receiving the highest praise. Angelou has used the same editor throughout her writing career, Robert Loomis, an executive editor at Random House, who has been called "one of publishing's hall of fame editors."^[56] Angelou has said regarding Loomis: "We have a relationship that's kind of famous among publishers".^[57]

All my work, my life, everything I do is about survival, not just bare, awful, plodding survival, but survival with grace and faith. While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated". --Maya Angelou^[58]

Angelou's long and extensive career also includes poetry, plays, screenplays for television and film, directing, acting, and public speaking. She is a prolific writer of poetry; her volume Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize,^[59] and she was chosen by President Bill Clinton to recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" during his inauguration in 1993.^[34]

Angelou has had a successful career as a playwright and actress. In 1977, she appeared in a supporting role in the television mini-series Roots. Her screenplay, Georgia, Georgia (1972), was the first original script by a black woman to be produced.^[32] In 2006 she had a cameo in Madea's Family Reunion as 'May'. In 2008, Angelou wrote poetry for and narrated the M. K. Asante, Jr. film The Black Candle.

Reception and legacy

Influence

When I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published in 1969, Angelou was hailed as a new kind of memoirist, one of the first African American women who was able to publicly discuss her personal life. Up to that point, black female writers were marginalized to the point that they were unable to present themselves as central characters. Writer Julian Mayfield, who called Caged Bird "a work of art that eludes description",^[60] has insisted that Angelou's autobiographies set a precedent not only for other black women writers, but for the genre of autobiography as a whole.^[60] Through the writing of her autobiography, Angelou had become recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for blacks and women.^[17] It made her "without a doubt, ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer".^[3]

Author Hilton Als has insisted that although Caged Bird was an important contribution to the increase of black feminist writings in the 1970s, he attributed its success less to its originality than with "its resonance in the prevailing Zeitgeist",^[60] or the time in which it was written, at the end of the American Civil Rights movement. Als also insisted that Angelou's writings, more interested in self-revelation than in politics or feminism, has freed many other female writers to "open themselves up without shame to the eyes of the world".^[60] Angelou biographer Joanne M. Braxton has insisted that Caged Bird was "perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing" autobiography written by an African-American woman in its era.^[3]

Critical reception

Angelou's books, especially I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, have been criticized by many parents, causing their removal from school curricula and library shelves. According to the National Coalition Against Censorship, parents and schools have objected to Caged Bird's depictions of lesbianism, premarital cohabitation, pornography, and violence.^[61] Some have been critical of the book's sexually explicit scenes, use of language, and irreverent religious depictions.^[62] Caged Bird appeared third on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000.^[63] It was fifth on the ALA's list of the ten most challenged books of the 21st century (2000–2005),^[64] and was one of the ten books most frequently banned from high school and junior high school libraries and classrooms.^[65]

The week after Angelou recited her poem, "On the Pulse of Morning", at President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, sales of the paperback version of her books and poetry rose by 300-600%. Bantam Books had to reprint 400,000 copies of all her books to keep up with the demand. Random House, which published Angelou's hardcover books and published the poem later that year, reported that they sold more of her books in January 1993 than they did in all of 1992, accounting for a 1200% increase.^[66]

Uses in education

Maya Angelou's plaque at San Francisco's Jack Kerouac Alley.

Angelou's autobiographies have been used in narrative and multicultural approaches in teacher education. Jocelyn A. Glazier, a professor at George Washington University, has used I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name to train teachers how to "talk about race" in their classrooms. Due to Angelou's use of understatement, self-mockery, humor, and irony, readers of Angelou's autobiographies wonder what she "left out" and are unsure about how to respond to the events Angelou describes. Angelou's depictions of her experiences of racism force white readers to explore their feelings about race and their own "privileged status". Glazier found that although critics have focused on where Angelou fits within the genre of African-American autobiography and on her literary techniques, readers react to her storytelling with "surprise, particularly when [they] enter the text with certain expectations about the genre of autobiography".^[67]

Educator Daniel Challener, in his 1997 book, Stories of Resilience in Childhood, analyzed the events in Caged Bird to illustrate resiliency in children. Challener insisted that Angelou's book provides a "useful framework" for exploring the obstacles many children like Maya face and how a community helps these children succeed as Angelou did.^[68] Psychologist Chris Boyatzis has reported using Caged Bird to supplement scientific theory and research in the instruction of child development topics such as the development of self-concept and self-esteem, ego resilience, industry versus inferiority, effects of abuse, parenting styles, sibling and friendship relations, gender issues, cognitive development, puberty, and identity formation in adolescence. He found the book a "highly effective" tool for providing real-life examples of these psychological concepts.^[69]

Style and genre

Angelou's use of fiction-writing techniques such as dialogue, characterization, and development of theme, setting, plot, and language has often resulted in the placement of her books into the genre of autobiographical fiction, but Angelou has characterized them as autobiographies.^[70] As Lauret has stated, Angelou made a deliberate attempt in her books to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre.^[71] Lupton has insisted that all of Angelou's autobiographies conform to the genre's standard structure: they are written by a single author, they are chronological, and they contain elements of character, technique, and theme.^[72] Angelou has also recognized that there are fictional aspects to her books. Lupton has stated that Angelou has tended to "diverge from the conventional notion of autobiography as truth",^[73] which has paralleled the conventions of much of African American autobiography written during the abolitionist period of US history, when the truth was censored out of the need for self-protection.^[73][74] Angelou has acknowledged that she has followed the slave narrative tradition of "speaking in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always saying I meaning 'we'".^[17]

The challenge for much of African American literature is that its authors have had to confirm its status as literature before it could accomplish its political goals, which is why Robert Loomis, Angelou's editor, was able to dare her into writing Caged Bird by challenging her to write an autobiography that could be considered "high art".^[75] When Angelou wrote Caged Bird at the end of the 1960s, one of the necessary and accepted features of literature at the time was "organic unity", and one of her goals was to create a book that satisfied that criteria.^[75] The events in her books are episodic and crafted like a series of short stories, but their arrangements do not follow a strict chronology. Instead, they are placed to emphasize the themes of her books.^[75] English literature scholar Valerie Sayers has asserted that "Angelou's poetry and prose are similar". They both rely on her "direct voice", which alternates steady rhythms with syncopated patterns and makes use of similes and metaphors (i.e., the caged bird).^[76]

I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.

Maya Angelou^[77]

Beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou has used the same "writing ritual"^[78] for many years. She wakes at five in the morning and checks into a hotel room, where the staff has been instructed to remove any pictures from the walls. She writes on legal pads while laying on the bed, with only a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards to play solitaire, Roget's Thesaurus, and the Bible, and leaves by the early afternoon. She averages 10–12 pages of material a day, which she edits down to three or four pages in the evening.^[79] Angelou goes through this process to "enchant" herself, and as she has said in a 1989 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, "relive the agony, the anguish, the Sturm und Drang."^[14] She places herself back in the time she is writing about, even traumatic experiences like her rape in Caged Bird, in order to "tell the human truth"^[14] about her life. Angelou has stated that she plays cards in order to get that place of enchantment, in order to access her memories more effectively. She has stated, "It may take an hour to get into it, but once I’m in it—ha! It’s so delicious!"^[14] She does not find the process cathartic; rather, she has found relief in "telling the truth".^[14]

Themes in Angelou's autobiographies

Identity

When I try to describe myself to God I say, "Lord, remember me? Black? Female? Six-foot tall? The writer?" And I almost always get God's attention.

Maya Angelou, 2008.^[80]

As feminist scholar Maria Lauret has indicated, Angelou and other female writers in the late 1960s and early 1970s used the autobiography to reimagine ways of writing about women's lives and identities in a male-dominated society. Lauret has made a connection between Angelou's autobiographies, which Lauret called "fictions of subjectivity" and "feminist first-person narratives", and fictional first-person narratives (such as The Women's Room by Marilyn French and The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing) written during the same period. Both genres employ the narrator as protagonist and "rely upon the illusion of presence in their mode of signification".^[81] Lauret has also stated that "the formation of female cultural identity"^[82] has been woven into Angelou's narratives. Angelou has presented herself as a role model for African American women by reconstructing the Black woman's image throughout her autobiographies, and has used her many roles, incarnations, and identities to "signify multiple layers of oppression and personal history".^[82] Lauret has viewed Angelou's themes of the individual's strength and ability to overcome throughout Angelou's autobiographies as well.^[82]

Author Hilton Els has insisted that while Angelou's original goal was to "tell the truth about the lives of black women",^[60] her goal evolved in her later volumes to document the ups and downs of her own life. Els has stated that Angelou's autobiographies have the same structure: they give a historical overview of the places she was living in at the time and how she coped within the context of a larger white society, as well as the ways that her story played out within that context. Critic Selwyn Cudjoe agreed with Els, especially in regards to Angelou's second volume, Gather Together in My Name. He stated that Angelou is still concerned with the questions of what it means to be a black female in the US, but she focuses upon herself at a certain point in history. As Cudjoe has said, "It is almost as though the incidents in the text were simply 'gathered together' under the name of Maya Angelou".^[60]

Family

One of the most important themes in Angelou's autobiographies are "kinship concerns",^[83] from the character-defining experience of her parents' abandonment to her relationships with her son, husbands, and lovers throughout all of her books.^[83] African American literature scholar Dolly McPherson has insisted that Angelou's concept of family throughout her books must be understood in the light of the way in which she and her older brother were displaced by their parents at the beginning of Caged Bird.^[84] Motherhood is a "prevailing theme"^[17] in all of Angelou's autobiographies, specifically her experiences as a single mother, a daughter, and a granddaughter.^[17] Lupton believes that Angelou's plot construction and character development were influenced by this mother/child motif found in the work of Harlem Renaissance poet Jessie Fauset.^[85]

The woman who survives intact and happy must be at once tender and tough.

Maya Angelou, Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now (1994)

Scholar Mary Burgher has stated that black women autobiographers like Angelou have debunked the stereotypes of African American mothers of "breeder and matriarch" and have presented them as having "a creative and personally fulfilling role".^[86]

Lupton has stated that the one unifying theme that connects all of Angelou's autobiographies is what she has called "the mother-child pattern".^[87] Angelou describes throughout her books her connection of mother and child—with herself and her son Guy, with herself and her own mother, and with herself and her grandmother. Other themes include the absent and/or substitute father, the use of food as a psychosexual symbol, and the use of staring or gazing for dramatic and symbolic effect. They are also related through literary elements such as the ambivalent autobiographical voice, the flexibility of structure to illustrate the disjointedness of life, and Angelou's commentary on character and theme.^[87]

Racism

Beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou uses the metaphor of a bird struggling to escape its cage described in the Paul Laurence Dunbar poem, "Sympathy", as a "central image" throughout all of her autobiographies.^[18][88] Like elements within a prison narrative, the caged bird represents Angelou's confinement resulting from racism and oppression.^[89] This metaphor also invokes the "supposed contradiction of the bird singing in the midst of its struggle".^[18] Critic Pierre A. Walker has placed Angelou's autobiographies in the African American literature tradition of political protest written in the years following the American Civil Rights movement. Walker has emphasized that the unity of Angelou's autobiographies serves to underscore one of Angelou's central themes: the injustice of racism and how to fight it.^[75] Walker has also stated that Angelou's biographies, beginning with Caged Bird, consist of "a sequence of lessons about resisting racist oppression".^[75] This sequence leads Angelou, as the protagonist, from "helpless rage and indignation to forms of subtle resistance, and finally to outright and active protest"^[75] throughout all six of her autobiographies.

Honors and awards

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Maya Angelou

Angelou is one of the most honored writers of her generation. She has been honored by universities, literary organizations, government agencies, and special interest groups. Her honors include a National Book Award nomination for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her book of poetry, Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie,^[90] a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1973 play Look Away, and three Grammys for her spoken word albums.^[32][91] In 1995, Angelou's publishing company, Bantam Books, recognized her for having the longest-running record (two years) on The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Bestseller List.^[92] She has served on two presidential committees,^[93] and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000^[94] and the Lincoln Medal in 2008.^[95] Musician Ben Harper has honored Angelou with his song "I'll Rise", which includes words from her poem, "And Still I Rise."^[96] She has been awarded over thirty honorary degrees.^[97]

Notes

1. ^ Angelou, Maya (2007). "Pronunciation of Maya Angelou". SwissEduc. http://www.swisseduc.ch/english/readinglist/angelou_maya/pronun.html. Retrieved 2008-04-06. 
2. ^ "Maya Angelou". Poets.org. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/87. Retrieved 2007-10-25. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Braxton, p. 4
4. ^ Moyer, p.297
5. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 32
6. ^ Kellaway, Kate (1993-01-23). "Poet for the new America". The Guardian. http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/poetry/story/0,,102370,00.html. Retrieved 2007-10-15. 
7. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 2
8. ^ Henry L. Gates, Jr. (host). (2008). African American lives 2: The past is another country (Part 4). [Documentary]. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/. Retrieved 2008-03-15. 
9. ^ Henry L. Gates, Jr. (host). (2008). African American lives 2: A way out of no way (Part 2). [Documentary]. UPN. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/. Retrieved 2008-03-15. 
10. ^ Angelou (1969), p. 13
11. ^ Angelou (1969), p. 6
12. ^ ^{a b} Lupton (1998), p. 4
13. ^ Angelou (1969), p. 52
14. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Maya Angelou I know why the caged bird sings". BBC World Service Book Club. BBC. October 2005.
15. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 5
16. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 15
17. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} "Maya Angelou". Poetry Foundation. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=180. Retrieved 2007-10-25. 
18. ^ ^{a b c} Long, Richard (2005-11-01). "35 who made a difference: Maya Angelou". Smithsonian.com. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/10013086.html. Retrieved 2007-10-25. 
19. ^ ^{a b} Lupton (1998), p. 6
20. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 120
21. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 103
22. ^ ^{a b} Younge, Gary (2002–05–25). "No surrender". The Guardian. http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/biography/story/0,,720909,00.html. Retrieved 2007–10–10. 
23. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 13
24. ^ Also in Singin' and Swingin' (p. 75), Angelou claimed that she was trained in African dance by Trinidian dancer Pearl Primus.
25. ^ Angelou (1993), p. 95
26. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 7
27. ^ ^{a b} Braxton, p. 3
28. ^ ^{a b c} Minzesheimer, Bob (2008-03-26). "Maya Angelou celebrates her 80 years of pain and joy". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2008-03-26-maya-angelou_N.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-30. 
29. ^ ^{a b} Van Gelder, Lawrence (1998-04-08). "Winfrey's Gift". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06EFDE1F3AF93BA35757C0A96E958260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fA%2fAngelou%2c%20Maya. Retrieved 2007-10-12. 
30. ^ Smith, Dinitia (2007-01-23). "A career in letters, 50 years and counting". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/books/23loom.html. Retrieved 2007-10-23. 
31. ^ ^{a b} "About the author: Angelou in print". Cliffs Notes. http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/I-Know-Why-the-Caged-Bird-Sings.id-24,pageNum-4.html. Retrieved 2007-10-22. 
32. ^ ^{a b c} "Maya Angelou: A brief biography". African Overseas Union. http://www.houstonprogressive.org/africanoverseasunion/mayaangelou.html. Retrieved 2007-10-07. 
33. ^ Winfrey, Oprah. "Oprah's cut with Maya Angelou". Oprah.com. http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/oprahscut/omag_200012_maya. Retrieved 2007-10-02. 
34. ^ ^{a b c} Manegold, Catherine S. (1993-01-20). "An afternoon with Maya Angelou; A wordsmith at her inaugural anvil". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5D81E30F933A15752C0A965958260&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FPeople%2FA%2FAngelou%2C%20Maya. Retrieved 2007-10-02. 
35. ^ Canby, Vincent (1993-07-23). "Review/Film: Poetic Justice; On the road to redemption". New York Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9F0CE7DB1F30F930A15754C0A965958260&oref=slogin. Retrieved 2008-01-09. 
36. ^ ^{a b} Grondahl, Paul (2008-05-18). "Palace sets stage for literature's everywoman". Times Union. http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=689048&category=ARTS&newsdate=5/18/2008. Retrieved 2008-05-29. 
37. ^ Lauret, p. 26
38. ^ McLaughlin, Katie (2008-01-24). "Angelou speaks to a diverse crowd in Burruss". Collegiate Times. http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/2008/01/22/angelou_speaks_to_a_diverse_crowd_in_burruss. Retrieved 2008-01-10. 
39. ^ "Contact". Maya Angelou.com. http://www.mayaangelou.com/Contact.html. Retrieved 2007-09-27. 
40. ^ Mikkelson, Barbara; David P. Mikkelson (2006-12-06). "Shiver me Timberlands!". Snopes.com. http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/timberland.asp. Retrieved 2007-09-27. 
41. ^ Williams, Jeannie (2002-01-10). "Maya Angelou pens her sentiments for Hallmark". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/2002/2002-01-10-maya-angelou-full.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-10. 
42. ^ Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 greatest African Americans: A biographical encyclopedia. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8. 
43. ^ Waggoner, Martha (2006-09-13). "Maya Angelou to host show on XM Radio". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Sep13/0,4670,PeopleAngelou,00.html. Retrieved 2007-09-28. 
44. ^ Waldron, Clarence (2006-12-25). "Maya Angelou: on Christmas, Dave Chappelle and what inspires her". Jet. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_/ai_n17134178. Retrieved 2008-12-12. 
45. ^ "Maya Angelou still rises". CBS News. 2007-10-22. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/22/earlyshow/leisure/books/main3391490.shtml. Retrieved 2007-10-22. 
46. ^ Associated Press (2008-05-04). "Maya Angelou celebrates 80th birthday". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,354102,00.html. Retrieved 2008-05-30. 
47. ^ Italie, Hillel (2008-03-29). "Maya Angelou at 80: Life is still an adventure". Associated Press. http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/83-03292008-1510872.html. Retrieved 2008-03-29. 
48. ^ Mooney, Alexander (2008-12-10). "Clinton camp answers Oprah with Angelou". CNN Politics.com. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/12/10/clinton-camp-answers-oprah-with-angelou/. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
49. ^ Williams, Krissah (2008-01-18). "Presidential candidates court S.C. black newspaper". Washington Post. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2008/01/18/presidential_candidates_court_1.html. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
50. ^ Zeleny, Jeff; Marjorie Connelly (2008-01-27). "Obama Carries South Carolina by Wide Margin". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/us/politics/27carolina.html. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
51. ^ "Maya Angelou speaks out for Obama". The Daily Voice. 2008-09-23. http://thedailyvoice.com/voice/2008/09/maya-angelou-speaks-out-for-ob-001161.php. Retrieved 2008-09-28. 
52. ^ Parker, Jennifer (2009-01-19). "From King's 'I Have a Dream' to Obama inauguration". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Inauguration/story?id=6665595. Retrieved 2009-04-04. 
53. ^ Peter, Jeremy W. (2009-05-28). "Celebrities champion state’s same-sex marriage bill". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/nyregion/29celebrity.html?_r=2&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y. Retrieved 2009-05-31. 
54. ^ "TMZ news about Maya Angelou gets it wrong". Los Angeles Daily News. 2009-10-04. http://www.dailynews.com/ci_13483928?source=most_viewed. Retrieved 2009-10-06. 
55. ^ ^{a b} Lupton (1998), p. 1
56. ^ Arnold, Martin (2001-04-12). "Making books; Familiarity breeds content". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801E0D91731F931A25757C0A9679C8B63&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/People/T/Tyler,%20Anne. Retrieved 2007-10-11. 
57. ^ Tate, p. 155
58. ^ McPherson, pp. 10-11
59. ^ Moyer, Homer E. (2003). The R.A.T. real-world aptitude test: Preparing yourself for leaving home. Sterling, Virginia: Capital Books. pp. 297. ISBN 1-931868-42-5. 
60. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Als, Hilton. "Songbird: Maya Angelou takes another look at herself". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/08/05/020805crbo_books?currentPage=all. Retrieved 2002-08-05. 
61. ^ "Maya Angelou, I know why the caged bird sings". National Coalition Against Censorship. http://www.thefileroom.org/documents/dyn/DisplayCase.cfm/id/796. Retrieved 2007-10-23. 
62. ^ Foerstel, p. 195–196
63. ^ "The 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990–2000". American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.cfm. Retrieved 2008-11-22. 
64. ^ "Harry Potter tops list of most challenged books of 21st century". American Library Association. http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2006/september2006/harrypottermostchallenge.cfm. Retrieved 2008-06-14. 
65. ^ Braxton, p. 5
66. ^ Brozan, Nadine (1993-01-30). "Chronicle". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CEEDA113CF933A05752C0A965958260. Retrieved 2008-09-24. 
67. ^ Glazier, Jocelyn A. (Winter 2003). "Moving closer to speaking the unspeakable: White teachers talking about race" (PDF). Teacher Education Quarterly (California Council on Teacher Education) 30 (1): 73–94. http://www.calfac.org/allpdf/teqwinter2003/glazier.pdf. Retrieved 2008-02-18. 
68. ^ Challener, Daniel D. (1997). Stories of Resilience in Childhood. London, England: Taylor & Francis. pp. 22–23. ISBN 0-815328-00-1. 
69. ^ Boyatzis, Chris J. (February 1992). "Let the caged bird sing: Using literature to teach developmental psychology". Teaching of Psychology 19 (4): 221-222. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a785858917~db=all~order=page. Retrieved 2008-10-06. 
70. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 29–30.
71. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 98.
72. ^ Lupton, p. 32
73. ^ ^{a b} Lupton (1998), p. 34.
74. ^ Sartwell, p. 26.
75. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Walker, Pierre A. (October 1995). "Racial protest, identity, words, and form in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". College Literature 22 (3): 91–108. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3709/is_199510/ai_n8723217. Retrieved 2008-05-24. 
76. ^ Sayers, Valerie (2008-09-28). "Songs of herself". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/09/26/ST2008092601489.html. Retrieved 2008-09-28. 
77. ^ Tate, p. 150
78. ^ Lupton (1998), p.15
79. ^ Sarler, Carol (1989). "A life in the day of Maya Angelou". in Jeffrey M. Elliot. Conversations with Maya Angelou. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press. ISBN 0-8780-5362-X. 
80. ^ Neary, Lynn (2008-04-06). "At 80, Maya Angelou reflects on a 'glorious' life". NPR. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89355359. Retrieved 2008-05-29. 
81. ^ Lauret, p. 98
82. ^ ^{a b c} Lauret, p. 97
83. ^ ^{a b} Lupton (1998), p. 11
84. ^ McPherson, p. 14
85. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 49
86. ^ Burgher, Mary (1979). "Images of self and race in the autobiographies of black women". in Roseann P. Bell, et al.. Sturdy black bridges. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday. p. 115. ISBN 0-3851-3347-2. 
87. ^ ^{a b} Lupton (1999), p. 131
88. ^ Lupton (1998), p. 38
89. ^ Lupton, p. 38-39
90. ^ Moyer, p. 297
91. ^ "Past Winners". Official website of the Tony Awards. http://www.tonyawards.com/p/tonys_search. Retrieved 2007-10-05. 
92. ^ "Biography Information". Maya Angelou official website. http://www.mayaangelou.com/LongBio.html. Retrieved 2007-10-24. 
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94. ^ "Sculptor, painter among National Medal of Arts winners". CNN.com. 2000-12-20. http://archives.cnn.com/2000/STYLE/arts/12/20/national.medal.of.arts/index.html. Retrieved 2007-10-12. 
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References

• Angelou, Maya (1969). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-375-50789-2
• Angelou, Maya (1993). Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-22363-2
• Baisnée, Valérie (1994). Gendered resistance: The autobiographies of Simone de Beauvoir, Maya Angelou, Janet Frame and Marguerite Duras. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ISBN 90-420-0109-7
• Braxton, Joanne M. (1999). "Symbolic geography and psychic landscapes: A conversation with Maya Angelou". In Maya Angelou's I know why the caged bird sings: A casebook, Joanne M. Braxton, ed. New York: Oxford Press. ISBN 0-1951-1606-2
• Lauret, Maria (1994). Liberating literature: Feminist fiction in America. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-4150-6515-1
• Lupton, Mary Jane (1998). Maya Angelou: A critical companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-30325-8
• Lupton, Mary Jane (1999). "Singing the black mother". In Maya Angelou's I know why the caged bird sings: A casebook, Joanne M. Braxton, ed. New York: Oxford Press. ISBN 0-1951-1606-2
• McPherson, Dolly A. (1990). Order out of chaos: The autobiographical works of Maya Angelou. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. ISBN 0-820411-39-6
• Moyer, Homer E. (2003). The R.A.T. real-world aptitude test: Preparing yourself for leaving home. Sterling, Virginia: Capital Books. ISBN 1-931868-42-5
• Sartwell, Crispin. (1998). Act like you know: African-American autobiography and white identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226735-27-3
• Tate, Claudia (1999). "Maya Angelou". In Maya Angelou's I know why the caged bird sings: A casebook, Joanne M. Braxton, ed. New York: Oxford Press. ISBN 0-1951-1606-2

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Maya Angelou

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Maya Angelou

• Official website
• The Black Candle - A film narrated by Maya Angelou
• Maya Angelou's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project
• Maya Angelou reciting her inaugural poem, 1993 (YouTube)
• Maya Angelou at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Literary Works by Maya Angelou Autobiographies I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings · Gather Together in My Name · Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas · The Heart of a Woman · All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes · A Song Flung Up To Heaven Poetry Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie · Oh Pray My Wings are Gonna Fit Me Well · Still I Rise · Shaker, Why Don't You Sing · Now Sheba Sings the Song · I Shall Not Be Moved · "On the Pulse of Morning" · Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems for Women · Poetry for Young People Essays Lessons in Living · Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now · Even the Stars Look Lonesome · Hallelujah! The Welcome Table · Mother: A Cradle to Hold Me · Letter to My Daughter Children's books Mrs. Flowers: A Moment of Friendship · Life Doesn't Frighten Me · Soul Looks Back in Wonder · My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken and Me · Kofi and His Magic · Maya's World · Plays Cabaret for Freedom · The Least of These · The Best of These · The Clawing Within · Gettin' up Stayed on My Mind · Adjoa Amissah · Sophocles, Ajax · And Still I Rise · Theatrical Vignette · King

Persondata
NAME	Angelou, Maya
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Johnson, Marguerite Ann
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Poet, dancer, producer, playwright, director, author
DATE OF BIRTH	April 4, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH	Saint Louis, Missouri
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH

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