Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou | |
---|---|
Born | Marguerite Annie Johnson April 4, 1928 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
Died | May 28, 2014 Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S. | (aged 86)
Occupation |
|
Period | 1951–2014 |
Subject |
|
Spouses | |
Children | 1 |
Signature | |
Website | |
www |
Maya Angelou (
She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. These included fry cook,
With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson for Black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of Black culture. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some U.S. libraries. Angelou's most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes that include racism, identity, family and travel.
Early life
Marguerite Annie Johnson
Four years later, when Angelou was seven and her brother eight, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning"[10] and returned them to their mother's care in St. Louis. At the age of eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, a man named Freeman. She told her brother, who told the rest of their family. Freeman was found guilty but was jailed for only one day. Four days after his release, he was murdered, probably by Angelou's uncles.[11] Angelou became mute for almost five years,[12] believing she was to blame for his death; as she 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."[13] According to Marcia Ann Gillespie and her colleagues, who wrote a biography about Angelou, it was during this period of silence when Angelou developed her extraordinary memory, her love for books and literature, and her ability to listen and observe the world around her.[14]
To know her life story is to simultaneously wonder what on earth you have been doing with your own life and feel glad that you didn't have to go through half the things she has.
The Guardian writer Gary Younge, 2009[15]
Shortly after Freeman's murder, when Angelou was eight and her brother nine, Angelou and her brother were sent back to their grandmother.
When Angelou was 14 and her brother 15, she and her brother moved in once again with their mother, who had since moved to
Three weeks after completing school, at the age of 17, she gave birth to her son, Clyde (who later changed his name to Guy Johnson).[26][27]
Career
Adulthood and early career: 1951–1961
In 1951, Angelou married Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician, former sailor, and aspiring musician, despite the condemnation of interracial relationships at the time and the disapproval of her mother.[28][29][note 3] She took modern dance classes during this time and met dancers and choreographers Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford. Ailey and Angelou formed a dance team, calling themselves "Al and Rita", and performed modern dance at fraternal Black organizations throughout San Francisco but never became successful.[31] Angelou, her new husband, and her son moved to New York City so she could study African dance with Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus, but they returned to San Francisco a year later.[32]
After Angelou's marriage ended in 1954, she danced professionally in clubs around San Francisco, including the nightclub The Purple Onion, where she sang and danced to calypso music.[33] Up to that point, she went by the name of "Marguerite Johnson", or "Rita", but at the strong suggestion of her managers and supporters at The Purple Onion, she changed her professional name to "Maya Angelou" (her nickname and former married surname). It was a "distinctive name"[34] that set her apart and captured the feel of her calypso dance performances. During 1954 and 1955, Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. She began her practice of learning the language of every country she visited, and in a few years she gained proficiency in several languages.[35] In 1957, riding on the popularity of calypso, Angelou recorded her first album, Miss Calypso, which was reissued as a CD in 1996.[31][36][37] She appeared in an off-Broadway review that inspired the 1957 film Calypso Heat Wave, in which Angelou sang and performed her own compositions.[36][note 4][note 5]
Angelou met novelist John Oliver Killens in 1959 and, at his urging, moved to New York to concentrate on her writing career. She joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she met several major African American authors, including John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Guy, Paule Marshall, and Julian Mayfield, and was published for the first time.[39] In 1960, after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and hearing him speak, she and Killens organized "the legendary"[40] Cabaret for Freedom to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and she was named SCLC's Northern Coordinator. According to scholar Lyman B. Hagen, her contributions to civil rights as a fundraiser and SCLC organizer were successful and "eminently effective".[41] Angelou also began her pro-Castro and anti-apartheid activism during this time.[42] She had joined the crowd cheering for Fidel Castro when he first entered the Hotel Theresa in Harlem, New York, during the United Nations 15th General Assembly on September 19, 1960.[43]
Africa to Caged Bird: 1961–1969
In 1961, Angelou performed in
In Accra, she became close friends with Malcolm X during his visit in the early 1960s.[note 7] Angelou returned to the U.S. in 1965 to help him build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity; he was assassinated shortly afterward. Devastated and adrift, she joined her brother in Hawaii, where she resumed her singing career. She moved back to Los Angeles to focus on her writing career. Working as a market researcher in Watts, Angelou witnessed the riots in the summer of 1965. She acted in and wrote plays and returned to New York in 1967. She met her lifelong friend Rosa Guy and renewed her friendship with James Baldwin, whom she had met in Paris in the 1950s and called "my brother", during this time.[54] Her friend Jerry Purcell provided Angelou with a stipend to support her writing.[55]
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. asked Angelou to organize a march. She agreed, but postponed again,[40] and in what Gillespie calls "a macabre twist of fate",[56] he was assassinated on her 40th birthday (April 4).[note 8] Devastated again, she was encouraged out of her depression by her friend James Baldwin. As Gillespie states, "If 1968 was a year of great pain, loss, and sadness, it was also the year when America first witnessed the breadth and depth of Maya Angelou's spirit and creative genius".[56] Despite having almost no experience, she wrote, produced, and narrated Blacks, Blues, Black!,[58] a ten-part series of documentaries about the connection between blues music and Black Americans' African heritage, and what Angelou called the "Africanisms still current in the U.S."[59] for National Educational Television, the precursor of PBS. Also in 1968, inspired at a dinner party she attended with Baldwin, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and his wife Judy, and challenged by Random House editor Robert Loomis, she wrote her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, published in 1969. This brought her international recognition and acclaim.[60]
Later career
Released in 1972, Angelou's
In 1977, Angelou appeared in a supporting role in the television mini-series
She returned to the southern United States in 1981 because she felt she had to come to terms with her past there and, despite having no bachelor's degree, accepted the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of
In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "
Angelou achieved her goal of directing a feature film in 1996,
Angelou campaigned for the
In 2013, at the age of 85, Angelou published the seventh volume of autobiography in her series, entitled Mom & Me & Mom, which focuses on her relationship with her mother.[97]
Personal life
I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.
Maya Angelou, 1999[98]
I also wear a hat or a very tightly pulled head tie when I write. I suppose I hope by doing that I will keep my brains from seeping out of my scalp and running in great gray blobs down my neck, into my ears, and over my face.
Maya Angelou, 1984[99]
Nothing so frightens me as writing, but nothing so satisfies me. It's like a swimmer in the [English] Channel: you face the stingrays and waves and cold and grease, and finally you reach the other shore, and you put your foot on the ground—Aaaahhhh!
Maya Angelou, 1989[100]
Evidence suggests that Angelou was partially descended from the Mende people of West Africa.[101][note 13] In 2008, a DNA test revealed that among all of her African ancestors, 45 percent were from the Congo-Angola region and 55 percent were from West Africa.[103] A 2008 PBS documentary found that Angelou's maternal great-grandmother, Mary Lee, who had been emancipated after the Civil War, became pregnant by her white former owner, John Savin. Savin forced Lee to sign a false statement accusing another man of being the father of her child. After Savin was indicted for forcing Lee to commit perjury, and despite the discovery that Savin was the father, a jury found him not guilty. Lee was sent to the Clinton County poorhouse in Missouri with her daughter, Marguerite Baxter, who became Angelou's grandmother. Angelou described Lee as "that poor little black girl, physically and mentally bruised."[104]
The details of Angelou's life described in her seven autobiographies and in numerous interviews, speeches, and articles tended to be inconsistent. Critic Mary Jane Lupton has explained that when Angelou spoke about her life, she did so eloquently, but informally, and "with no time chart in front of her."
I wrote about my experiences because I thought too many people tell young folks, "I never did anything wrong. Who, Moi? – never I. I have no skeletons in my closet. In fact, I have no closet." They lie like that and then young people find themselves in situations and they think, "Damn I must be a pretty bad guy. My mom or dad never did anything wrong." They can't forgive themselves and go on with their lives.[106]
Angelou had one son, Guy, whose birth she described in her first autobiography; one grandson, two great-grandchildren,[107] and, according to Gillespie, a large group of friends and extended family.[note 14] Angelou's mother Vivian Baxter died in 1991 and her brother Bailey Johnson Jr., died in 2000 after a series of strokes; both were important figures in her life and her books.[108][note 15] In 1981, the mother of her grandson disappeared with him; finding him took four years.[109][note 16]
Angelou did not earn a university degree, but according to Gillespie it was Angelou's preference to be called "Dr. Angelou" by people outside of her family and close friends. She owned two homes in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a "lordly brownstone"[15] in Harlem, which was purchased in 2004[111] and was full of her "growing library"[112] of books she collected throughout her life, artwork collected over the span of many decades, and well-stocked kitchens. The Guardian writer Gary Younge reported that in Angelou's Harlem home were several African wall hangings and her collection of paintings, including ones of several jazz trumpeters, a watercolor of Rosa Parks, and a Faith Ringgold work entitled "Maya's Quilt Of Life".[15]
According to Gillespie, she hosted several celebrations per year at her main residence in Winston-Salem; "her skill in the kitchen is the stuff of legend—from haute cuisine to down-home comfort food".[78] The Winston-Salem Journal stated: "Securing an invitation to one of Angelou's Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas tree decorating parties or birthday parties was among the most coveted invitations in town."[72] The New York Times, describing Angelou's residence history in New York City, stated that she regularly hosted elaborate New Year's Day parties.[111] She combined her cooking and writing skills in her 2004 book Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, which featured 73 recipes, many of which she learned from her grandmother and mother, accompanied by 28 vignettes.[113] She followed up in 2010 with her second cookbook, Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart, which focused on weight loss and portion control.[114]
Beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou used the same "writing ritual"
In 2009, the gossip website TMZ erroneously reported that Angelou had been hospitalized in Los Angeles when she was alive and well in St. Louis, which resulted in rumors of her death and, according to Angelou, concern among her friends and family worldwide.[15]
Death
Angelou died on the morning of May 28, 2014, at age 86.[120] Although Angelou had been in poor health and had canceled recent scheduled appearances, she was working on another book, an autobiography about her experiences with national and world leaders.[72][87] During her memorial service at Wake Forest University, her son Guy Johnson stated that despite being in constant pain due to her dancing career and respiratory failure, she wrote four books during the last ten years of her life. He said, "She left this mortal plane with no loss of acuity and no loss in comprehension."[121]
Tributes to Angelou and condolences were paid by artists, entertainers, and world leaders, including President Obama, whose sister was named after Angelou, and Bill Clinton.
On May 29, 2014, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, of which Angelou was a member for 30 years, held a public memorial service to honor her.
Works
Angelou wrote a total of seven autobiographies. According to scholar Mary Jane Lupton, Angelou's third autobiography
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[138]
Angelou's long and extensive career also included poetry, plays, screenplays for television and film, directing, acting, and public speaking. She was 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, and she was chosen by U.S. president Bill Clinton to recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" during his inauguration in 1993.[76][139]
Angelou's successful acting career included roles in numerous plays, films, and television programs, among them her appearance in the television mini-series Roots in 1977. Her screenplay, Georgia, Georgia (1972), was the first original script by a Black woman to be produced, and she was the first African American woman to direct a major motion picture, Down in the Delta, in 1998.[83]
Chronology of autobiographies
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969): Up to 1944 (age 17)
- Gather Together in My Name (1974): 1944–48
- Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas(1976): 1949–55
- The Heart of a Woman (1981): 1957–62
- All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986): 1962–65
- A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002): 1965–68
- Mom & Me & Mom (2013): overview
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 were able to publicly discuss their personal lives. According to scholar Hilton Als, up to that point, Black female writers were marginalized to the point that they were unable to present themselves as central characters in the literature they wrote.[40] Linguist John McWhorter agreed, seeing Angelou's works, which he called "tracts", as "apologetic writing". He placed Angelou in the tradition of African American literature as a defense of Black culture, which he called "a literary manifestation of the imperative that reigned in the black scholarship of the period".[140] Writer Julian Mayfield, who called Caged Bird "a work of art that eludes description",[40] argued that Angelou's autobiographies set a precedent for not only other Black women writers, but also African American autobiography as a whole. Als said that Caged Bird marked one of the first times that a Black autobiographer could, as he put it, "write about blackness from the inside, without apology or defense".[40] Through the writing of her autobiography, Angelou became recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for Blacks and women.[141] It made her "without a doubt, ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer",[141] and "a major autobiographical voice of the time".[142] As writer Gary Younge said, "Probably more than almost any other writer alive, Angelou's life literally is her work."[77]
Als said that Caged Bird helped increase Black
Critical reception
Reviewer
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, some parents and some schools have objected to Caged Bird's depictions of lesbianism, premarital cohabitation, pornography, and violence.[146] Some have been critical of the book's sexually explicit scenes, use of language, and irreverent depictions of religion.[147] Caged Bird appeared third on the American Library Association (ALA) list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 and sixth on the ALA's 2000–2009 list.[148][149]
Awards and honors
Angelou was honored by universities, literary organizations, government agencies, and special interest groups. Her honors included a
Uses in education
Angelou's autobiographies have been used in narrative and multicultural approaches in
Educator Daniel Challener, in his 1997 book Stories of Resilience in Childhood, analyzed the events in Caged Bird to illustrate resiliency in children. He argued that Angelou's book has provided a "useful framework" for exploring the obstacles many children like Maya have faced and how their communities have helped them succeed.[160] 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 Caged Bird a "highly effective" tool for providing real-life examples of these psychological concepts.[161]
Poetry
Angelou is best known for her seven autobiographies, but she was also a prolific and successful poet. She was called "the black woman's poet laureate", and her poems have been called the anthems of African Americans.[144] Angelou studied and began writing poetry at a young age, and used poetry and other great literature to cope with her rape as a young girl, as described in Caged Bird.[19] According to scholar Yasmin Y. DeGout, literature also affected Angelou's sensibilities as the poet and writer she became, especially the "liberating discourse that would evolve in her own poetic canon".[162]
Many critics consider Angelou's autobiographies more important than her poetry.[163] Although all her books have been bestsellers, her poetry has not been perceived to be as serious as her prose and has been understudied.[5] Her poems were more interesting when she recited and performed them, and many critics emphasized the public aspect of her poetry.[164] Angelou's lack of critical acclaim has been attributed to both the public nature of many of her poems and to Angelou's popular success, and to critics' preferences for poetry as a written form rather than a verbal, performed one.[165] Zofia Burr has countered Angelou's critics by condemning them for not taking into account Angelou's larger purposes in her writing: "to be representative rather than individual, authoritative rather than confessional".[166]
In the view of Harold Bloom, Professor of Literature (Yale University and New York University) and literary critic:
Her poetry has a large public, but very little critical esteem. It is, in every sense, "popular poetry," and makes no formal or cognitive demands upon the reader. Of Angelou's sincerity, good-will towards all, and personal vitality, there can be no doubt. She is professionally an inspirational writer, of the self-help variety, which perhaps places her beyond criticism. [...] Angelou seems best at ballads, the most traditional kind of popular poetry. The function of such work is necessarily social rather than aesthetic, particularly in an era totally dominated by visual media. One has to be grateful for the benignity, humor, and whole-heartedness of Angelou's project, even if her autobiographical prose necessarily centers her achievement.[167]
Style and genre in autobiographies
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
According to African American literature scholar Pierre A. Walker, the challenge for much of the history of African American literature was that its authors have had to confirm its status as literature before they could accomplish their political goals, which was why Angelou's editor Robert Loomis was able to dare her into writing Caged Bird by challenging her to write an autobiography that could be considered "high art".[174] Angelou acknowledged that she followed the slave narrative tradition of "speaking in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always saying I meaning 'we'".[134] Scholar John McWhorter calls Angelou's books "tracts"[140] that defend African American culture and fight negative stereotypes. According to McWhorter, Angelou structured her books, which to him seem to be written more for children than for adults, to support her defense of Black culture. McWhorter sees Angelou as she depicts herself in her autobiographies "as a kind of stand-in figure for the Black American in Troubled Times".[140] McWhorter views Angelou's works as dated, but recognizes that "she has helped to pave the way for contemporary black writers who are able to enjoy the luxury of being merely individuals, no longer representatives of the race, only themselves".[175] Scholar Lynn Z. Bloom compares Angelou's works to the writings of Frederick Douglass, stating that both fulfilled the same purpose: to describe Black culture and to interpret it for their wider, white audiences.[176]
According to scholar Sondra O'Neale, Angelou's poetry can be placed within the African American oral tradition, and her prose "follows classic technique in nonpoetic Western forms".[177] O'Neale states that Angelou avoided using a "monolithic Black language",[178] and accomplished, through direct dialogue, what O'Neale calls a "more expected ghetto expressiveness".[178] McWhorter finds both the language Angelou used in her autobiographies and the people she depicted unrealistic, resulting in a separation between her and her audience. As McWhorter states, "I have never read autobiographical writing where I had such a hard time summoning a sense of how the subject talks, or a sense of who the subject really is".[179] McWhorter asserts, for example, that key figures in Angelou's books, like herself, her son Guy, and mother Vivian do not speak as one would expect, and that their speech is "cleaned up" for her readers.[180] Guy, for example, represents the young Black male, while Vivian represents the idealized mother figure, and the stiff language they use, as well as the language in Angelou's text, is intended to prove that Blacks can use standard English competently.[181]
McWhorter recognizes that much of the reason for Angelou's style was the "apologetic" nature of her writing.
References
Explanatory notes
- ^ Angelou wrote about Vivian Baxter's life and their relationship in Mom & Me & Mom (2013), her final installment in her series of seven autobiographies.
- ^ According to Angelou, Annie Henderson built her business with food stalls catering to Black workers, which eventually developed into a store.[9]
- ^ The correct Greek spelling of Angelou's husband name is probably "Anastasios Angelopoulos".[30]
- ^ Reviewer John M. Miller calls Angelou's performance of her song "All That Happens in the Marketplace" the "most genuine musical moment in the film".[36]
- ^ In Angelou's third book of essays, Letter to My Daughter (2009), she credits Cuban artist Celia Cruz as one of the greatest influences of her singing career, and later, credits Cruz for the effectiveness and impact of Angelou's poetry performances and readings.[38]
- ^ Guy Johnson, who as a result of this accident in Accra and one in the late 1960s, underwent a series of spinal surgeries. He, like his mother, became a writer and poet.[49]
- ^ Angelou called her friendship with Malcolm X "a brother/sister relationship".[53]
- ^ Angelou did not celebrate her birthday for many years, choosing instead to send flowers to King's widow Coretta Scott King.[57]
- ^ See Mom & Me & Mom, pp. 168–178, for a description of Angelou's experience in Stockholm.
- ^ Angelou described their marriage, which she called "made in heaven",[63] in her second book of essays Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997).
- ^ Angelou co-wrote "And So It Goes" on Flack's 1988 album Oasis.[65]
- ^ Angelou dedicated her 1993 book of essays Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now to Winfrey.[70]
- ^ In her fifth autobiography All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1987), Angelou recounts being identified, on the basis of her appearance, as part of the Bambara people, a subset of the Mande.[102]
- ^ See Gillespie et al., pp. 153–175.
- ^ Angelou describes her brother's addiction to heroin in Mom & Me & Mom, pp. 189–194.
- ^ In Angelou's essay, "My Grandson, Home at Last", published in Woman's Day in 1986, she describes the kidnapping and her response to it.[110]
- ^ In Letter to My Daughter (2009), Angelou's third book of essays, she related the first time she used legal pads to write.[116]
Citations
- ^ "Maya Angelou". SwissEduc.com. December 17, 2013. Archived from the original on December 17, 2013.
- ^ Glover, Terry (December 2009). "Dr. Maya Angelou". Ebony. Vol. 65, no. 2. p. 67.
- ^ a b Stanley, Alessandra (May 17, 1992). "Whose Honor Is It, Anyway". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
- ^ Ferrer, Anne (May 29, 2014). "Angelou's optimism overcame hardships". The Star Phoenix. Archived from the original on May 31, 2014. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
- ^ a b c Lupton, p. 4.
- ^ Angelou (1969), p. 67.
- ^ Angelou (1969), p. 6.
- ISBN 978-0-7377-3905-3.
- ^ Angelou (1993), pp. 21–24.
- ^ Angelou (1969), p. 52.
- ISBN 978-0-19-511607-6.
- ^ Lupton, p. 5.
- ^ "Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". World Book Club. BBC World Service. October 2005. Archived from the original on June 3, 2017. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 22.
- ^ a b c d e Younge, Gary (November 13, 2013). "Maya Angelou: 'I'm fine as wine in the summertime". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on November 3, 2019. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 21–22.
- ^ Jannol, Hannah (December 7, 2017). "The Little Known Story of How a Jewish Sears Exec. Helped His African-American Neighbors". New York Jewish Week. Archived from the original on April 6, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
- ^ "'Fresh Air' Remembers Poet And Memoirist Maya Angelou". NPR. May 28, 2014. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
- ^ a b Angelou (1969), p. 13.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 23.
- ^ a b Lupton, p. 15.
- ^ "Maya Angelou | Market Street Railway". Market Street railway. February 1, 2021. Archived from the original on June 10, 2021. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 28.
- ^ a b c Brown, DeNeen L. (March 12, 2014). "Why Maya Angelou wanted to become a street car conductor". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Fernandez, Lisa (May 28, 2014). "Maya Angelou Was 1st Black, Female San Francisco Street Car Conductor". NBC. Archived from the original on September 28, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2018.
- ^ Angelou (1969), p. 279.
- ^ Long, Richard (November 1, 2005). "35 Who Made a Difference: Maya Angelou". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2013.
- ^ Hagen, p. xvi.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 29, 31.
- ISBN 978-0-89587-116-9.
- ^ a b Angelou (1993), p. 95.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 36–37.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 38.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 41.
- ^ Hagen, pp. 91–92.
- ^ a b c Miller, John M. "Calypso Heat Wave". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on March 12, 2010. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 48.
- ^ Angelou (2008), p. 80.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 49–51.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Als, Hilton (August 5, 2002). "Songbird: Maya Angelou takes another look at herself". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on July 7, 2014. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ^ Hagen, p. 103.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 57.
- ISBN 978-0-571-35309-5.
- ^ Innes, Lyn (May 28, 204). "Maya Angelou obituary". The Guardian. Archived from the original on August 7, 2019. Retrieved March 28, 2023.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 64.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 59.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 65.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 71.
- ^ Gillespie, p. 156.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 74, 75.
- ^ Braxton, p. 3.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 79–80.
- American Academy of Achievement. Archivedfrom the original on January 2, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
- ^ Boyd, Herb (August 5, 2010). "Maya Angelou Remembers James Baldwin". New York Amsterdam News. 100 (32): 17.
- ^ Gillespie et al., pp. 85–96.
- ^ a b Gillespie et al., p. 98.
- ^ a b c Minzesheimer, Bob (March 26, 2008). "Maya Angelou celebrates her 80 years of pain and joy". USA Today. Archived from the original on September 15, 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
- ^ All 10 episodes of Blacks, Blues, Black! can be viewed online Archived January 23, 2015, at the Wayback Machine Bay Area Television Archive, diva.sfsu.edu. Retrieved December 23, 2019
- ^ Angelou, Maya (February 1982). "Why I Moved Back to the South". Ebony. No. 37. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
- ^ Smith, Dinitia (January 23, 2007). "A Career in Letters, 50 Years and Counting". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 8, 2019. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
- ^ Brown, Avonie (January 4, 1997). "Maya Angelou: The Phenomenal Woman Rises Again". New York Amsterdam News (88): 2.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 105.
- ISBN 978-0-553-37972-3.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 119.
- ^ Feeney, Nolan (May 28, 2014). "Roberta Flack Remembers Maya Angelou: 'We All Have Been Inspired'". Time. Archived from the original on October 5, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 110.
- ^ a b Moore, Lucinda (April 2003). "Growing Up Maya Angelou". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on March 2, 2014. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
- ^ Wolf, Matt (March 20, 2012). "The National Theatre's Global Flair". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 28, 2012. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
- ^ Winfrey, Oprah (December 2000). "Oprah Talks to Maya Angelou". O Magazine. Archived from the original on April 13, 2009. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
- ^ Angelou (1993), p. x.
- ^ Glover, Terry (December 2009). "Dr. Maya Angelou". Ebony. No. 65. p. 67.
- ^ a b c d Hewlett, Michael (May 28, 2014). "Maya Angelou, famed poet, writer, activist, dead at 86". The Winston-Salem Journal. Archived from the original on August 2, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
- ^ Cohen, Patricia (host) (October 1, 2008). "Book Discussion on Letter to My Daughter". The New York Times (Documentary). Archived from the original on December 14, 2013. Retrieved December 13, 2013.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 126.
- ^ McGrath, Kim (June 2, 2014). "Remembering Dr. Maya Angelou". News Center. Wake Forest University. Archived from the original on June 5, 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
- ^ a b c Manegold, Catherine S. (January 20, 1993). "An Afternoon with Maya Angelou; A Wordsmith at Her Inaugural Anvil". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 24, 2008. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Younge, Gary (May 24, 2002). "No surrender". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 6, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ a b Gillespie et al., p. 9.
- ^ Braxton 1999, p. 3.
- ^ Berkman, Meredith (February 26, 1993). "Everybody's All American". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on September 15, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 142.
- ^ Long, p. 84.
- ^ a b Gillespie et al., p. 144.
- ^ Letkemann, Jessica (May 28, 2014). "Maya Angelou's Life in Music: Ashford & Simpson Collab, Calypso Album & More". Billboard. Archived from the original on September 13, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 10.
- ^ Williams, Jeannie (January 10, 2002). "Maya Angelou pens her sentiments for Hallmark". USA Today. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ a b c d Alter, Alexander (May 28, 2014). "Author, Poet Maya Angelou Dies". The Wall Street Journal.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 175.
- ^ Mooney, Alexander (December 10, 2008). "Clinton camp answers Oprah with Angelou". CNN Politics.com. Archived from the original on April 4, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2009.
- ^ Williams, Krissah (January 18, 2008). "Presidential candidates court S.C. black newspaper". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 26, 2013. Retrieved April 4, 2009.
- ^ Zeleny, Jeff; Marjorie Connelly (January 27, 2008). "Obama Carries South Carolina by Wide Margin". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 1, 2009. Retrieved April 4, 2009.
- ^ Parker, Jennifer (January 19, 2009). "From King's 'I Have a Dream' to Obama Inauguration". ABC News. Archived from the original on September 16, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Waldron, Clarence (November 11, 2010). "Maya Angelou Donates Private Collection to Schomburg Center in Harlem". Jet Magazine. Archived from the original on September 15, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Lee, Felicia R. (October 26, 2010). "Schomburg Center in Harlem Acquires Maya Angelou Archive". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 10, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Weingarten, Gene; Ruane, Michael E. (August 30, 2011). "Maya Angelou says King memorial inscription makes him look 'arrogant'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 25, 2023. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
- ^ Ruane, Michael E. (December 11, 2011). "Controversial King memorial inscription to be removed, not replaced". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 13, 2014. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
- ^ Sayers, Valerie (March 27, 2013). "'Mom & Me & Mom,' by Maya Angelou". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 11, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Tate, p. 150.
- ISBN 978-0-385-17124-3.
- ^ Toppman, p. 145.
- ^ Gates, Jr., Henry L. (host) (2008). "African American Lives 2: The Past is Another Country (Part 4)". PBS. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-679-73404-8.
- ISBN 9780307409737.
- ^ Gates, Jr., Henry L. (host) (2008). "African American Lives 2: A Way out of No Way (Part 2)". PBS. Archived from the original on December 20, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Lupton, p. 2.
- ^ Wolf, Linda (Winter 1995). "Laugh and Dare to Love". In Context Magazine. Vol. 43. p. 45. Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 156.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 155.
- ^ Beyette, Beverly (June 12, 1986). "Angelou's 4-Year Search for Grandson: Kidnapping Spurs Emotional Odyssey". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved November 19, 2014.
- ^ Lupton, p. 19.
- ^ a b Yee, Vivian (May 29, 2014). "Maya Angelou Often Left New York, but She Always Came Back". The New York Times. p. A23. Archived from the original on July 3, 2014. Retrieved November 18, 2014.
- ^ Gillespie et al., p. 150.
- ^ Pierce, Donna (January 5, 2005). "Welcome to her world: Poet-author Maya Angelou blends recipes and memories in winning style". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved November 24, 2013.
- ^ Crea, Joe (January 18, 2011). "Maya Angelou's cookbook 'Great Food, All Day Long' exudes cozy, decadence". Northeast Ohio Media Group. Archived from the original on December 13, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-87805-362-9.
- ^ Angelou (2008), pp. 63–67.
- ^ Newport, Cal (May 20, 2021). "What if Remote Work Didn't Mean Working from Home?". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on May 28, 2021. Retrieved May 29, 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". World Book Club (interview). BBC World Service. October 2005. Archived from the original on June 3, 2017. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Busby, Margaret (May 29, 2014). "Maya Angelou dies: Appreciation by her friend Margaret Busby". The Independent.
- ^ "Dr. Maya Angelou dead at 86". Winston-Salem, North Carolina: WXII12.com. May 28, 2014. Archived from the original on September 15, 2018. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
- ^ Johnson, Guy (June 7, 2014). "Full Remarks: Angelou's son, Guy Johnson". WXII12.com. Archived from the original on June 11, 2014. Retrieved June 16, 2014.
- ^ "Maya Angelou 'the brightest light' says Barack Obama". BBC News. May 28, 2014. Archived from the original on May 29, 2014. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
- ^ Jenkins, Colleen; Trott, Bill (May 28, 2014). "U.S. author, poet Maya Angelou dies at 86". Reuters. Archived from the original on August 12, 2016. Retrieved May 28, 2014.
- ^ WBTV Web Staff (May 29, 2014). "Dr Maya Angelou remembered at public memorial service". Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Worldnow and WDAM TV. Archived from the original on May 31, 2014. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
- ^ "Poet Maya Angelou remembered at memorial service". News & Record. Associated Press. June 7, 2014. Retrieved June 8, 2014.
- ^ Tobar, Hector (June 4, 2014). "Maya Angelou's memorial service to be live-streamed". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 10, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
- WXII. June 7, 2014. Archivedfrom the original on June 22, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
- ^ "Maya Angelou memorial service set for Saturday, will be shown live on FOX8 and MyFOX8.com". WGHP. June 5, 2014. Archived from the original on June 9, 2014. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
- ^ Smith, Christie; Cestone, Vince (June 15, 2014). "Maya Angelou Remembered as 'Daughter of San Francisco' at Glide Memorial Church". NBC Bay Area.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2014. Retrieved June 16, 2014.
- ^ Lupton, p. 98.
- ^ Lupton, p. 1.
- ISBN 978-0198691372.
- ^ Gilmor, Susan (April 7, 2013). "Angelou: Writing about Mom emotional process". The Winston-Salem Journal. Archived from the original on June 19, 2018. Retrieved April 14, 2013.
- ^ a b c "Maya Angelou". Poetry Foundation. Archived from the original on April 8, 2016. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Italie, Hillel (May 6, 2011). "Robert Loomis, Editor of Styron, Angelou, Retires". The Washington Times. Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 5, 2019. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Martin, Arnold (April 12, 2001). "Making Books; Familiarity Breeds Content". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 10, 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
- ^ Tate, p. 155.
- ISBN 978-0-8204-1139-2.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-931868-42-6.
- ^ a b c d McWhorter, p. 40.
- ^ a b c Braxton, p. 4.
- ^ Long, p. 85.
- ^ Feeney, Nolan (May 28, 2014). "A Brief History of How Maya Angelou Influenced Hip Hop". Time. Archived from the original on January 2, 2015. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
- ^ a b Washington, Elsie B. (March–April 2002). "A Song Flung Up to Heaven". Black Issues Book Review. 4 (2): 56. Archived from the original on March 3, 2022. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
- ^ Brozan, Nadine (January 30, 1993). "Chronicle". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ^ "Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". National Coalition Against Censorship. Archived from the original on September 15, 2018. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ISBN 978-1-59311-374-2.
- ^ "The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000". American Library Association. March 27, 2013. Archived from the original on July 24, 2017. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ^ "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000–2009". American Library Association. March 27, 2013. Archived from the original on December 13, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ^ Maughan, Shannon (March 3, 2003). "Grammy Gold". Publishers Weekly. Vol. 250, no. 9. p. 38.
- ^ "Past Winners". Tony Awards. Archived from the original on August 31, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ^ "National Commission on the observance of International Women's Year, 1975 Appointment of Members and Presiding Officer of the Commission". The American Presidency Project. March 28, 1977. Archived from the original on December 24, 2013. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ^ "Spingarn Medal Winners". NAACP. Archived from the original on August 2, 2014. Retrieved June 7, 2015.
- ^ "Sculptor, Painter among National Medal of Arts Winners". CNN. December 20, 2000. Archived from the original on April 17, 2005. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ^ Norton, Jerry (February 15, 2011). "Obama awards freedom medals to Bush, Merkel, Buffett". Reuters. Archived from the original on March 12, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ^ "American Women Quarters™ Program". United States Mint. August 2, 2021. Archived from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
- ^ "U.S. Mint to issue quarters honoring notable American women". NBC News. Associated Press. June 17, 2021. Archived from the original on August 20, 2021. Retrieved August 20, 2021.
- ^ Mendoza, Jordan (January 11, 2022). "Maya Angelou coins distributed by US Mint make her first Black woman to appear on quarters". USA Today. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022. Retrieved January 12, 2022.
- ^ Glazier, Jocelyn A. (Winter 2003). "Moving Closer to Speaking the Unspeakable: White Teachers Talking about Race" (PDF). Teacher Education Quarterly. 30 (1): 73–94. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 1, 2005. Retrieved December 21, 2013.
- ISBN 978-0-8153-2800-1.
- S2CID 145274568.
- ^ DeGout, p. 122.
- ISBN 978-0-8103-1716-1.
- ^ Burr, p. 181.
- ISBN 978-0-7910-5937-1.
- ^ Burr, p. 183.
- ISBN 978-1-60413-177-2.
- ^ Lupton, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Lauret, p. 98.
- ^ Lupton, p. 32.
- ^ a b Lupton, p. 34.
- ISBN 978-0-226-73527-6.
- ^ Hagen, pp. 6–7.
- ^ a b Walker, p. 92.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 41.
- ISBN 978-0-7377-3905-3.
- ^ O'Neale, p. 32.
- ^ a b O'Neale, p. 34.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 39.
- ^ McWhorter, p. 38.
- ^ McWhorter, pp. 40–41.
- ^ Sayers, Valerie (September 28, 2008). "Songs of Herself". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on September 15, 2018. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
- ^ Hagen, p. 63.
- ^ Hagen, p. 61.
- ^ Lupton, p. 142.
Works cited
- Angelou, Maya (1969). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-375-50789-2
- Angelou, Maya (1993). Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-22363-6
- Angelou, Maya (2008). Letter to My Daughter. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-8129-8003-5
- Braxton, Joanne M., ed. (1999). Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook. New York: Oxford Press. ISBN 978-0-19-511606-9
- Braxton, Joanne M. "Symbolic Geography and Psychic Landscapes: A Conversation with Maya Angelou", pp. 3–20
- Tate, Claudia. "Maya Angelou: An Interview", pp. 149–158
- Burr, Zofia (2002). Of Women, Poetry, and Power: Strategies of Address in Dickinson, Miles, Brooks, Lorde, and Angelou. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-02769-7
- DeGout, Yasmin Y. (2009). "The Poetry of Maya Angelou: Liberation Ideology and Technique". In Bloom's Modern Critical Views – Maya Angelou, Harold Bloom, ed. New York: ISBN 978-1-60413-177-2
- Gillespie, Marcia Ann, Rosa Johnson Butler, and Richard A. Long. (2008). Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-385-51108-7
- Hagen, Lyman B. (1997). Heart of a Woman, Mind of a Writer, and Soul of a Poet: A Critical Analysis of the Writings of Maya Angelou. Lanham, Maryland: University Press. ISBN 978-0-7618-0621-9
- Lauret, Maria (1994). Liberating Literature: Feminist Fiction in America. New York: Routledge Press. ISBN 978-0-415-06515-3
- Long, Richard (2005). "Maya Angelou". Smithsonian 36, (8): pp. 84–85
- Lupton, Mary Jane (1998). Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-30325-8
- McWhorter, John (2002). "Saint Maya." Archived September 21, 2009, at the Wayback Machine The New Republic 226, (19): pp. 35–41.
- O'Neale, Sondra (1984). "Reconstruction of the Composite Self: New Images of Black Women in Maya Angelou's Continuing Autobiography", in Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical Evaluation, ISBN 978-0-385-17124-3
- Toppman, Lawrence (1989). "Maya Angelou: The Serene Spirit of a Survivor", in Conversations with Maya Angelou, Jeffrey M. Elliot, ed. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press. ISBN 978-0-87805-362-9
- 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): pp. 91–108.
External links
- Official website
- Maya Angelou discography at Discogs
- Maya Angelou at IMDb
- Maya Angelou at the Internet Broadway Database
- Maya Angelou at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Maya Angelou papers at New York Public Library
- Maya Angelou memorial service at Wake Forest University
- Spring, Kelly. "Maya Angelou". National Women's History Museum. 2017.
- Maya Angelou's Posthumous Album, 'Caged Bird Songs,' Debuts
- Appearances on C-SPAN