Review

Maya Angelou, whose landmark book of 1969, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” — a lyrical, unsparing account of her childhood in the Jim Crow South — was among the first autobiographies by a 20th-century black woman to reach a wide general readership.  
 
Throughout her writing, Ms. Angelou explored concepts such as personal identity and resilience through the multifaceted lens of race, sex, family, community whilst incorporating her own and her family’s collective past. Angelou’s writing offered cleareyed examinations of the ways in which the socially marginalizing forces of racism and sexism played out at the level of the individual. Angelou was well known for her activism, and her role in the civil rights movement cannot be understated.  

Justifications

• Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years.
• The first black woman director in Hollywood, Angelou wrote, produced, directed, and starred in productions for stage, film, and television.
• She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees.
• Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences.
• In 1993, Angelou wrote and delivered a poem, "On The Pulse of the Morning," at the inauguration for President Bill Clinton at his request. In 2000, she received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2010 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

Biography

Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim. 
 
She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. These included fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made approximately 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993) at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961. 
While Angelou’s first volume of memoirs is generally considered to be the best, the subsequent instalments – 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 Travelling Shoes (1986), A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002) and Mom & Me & Mom (2013) – have also achieved a large and appreciative audience. Collectively, they portray Angelou's experience as a young single mother; her travels in Europe and Africa with the cast of Porgy and Bess; her involvement with the civil rights movement and meetings with iconic figures such as King, Malcolm X and Billie Holiday; her life in Ghana, her son's car accident and her decision to leave him in Ghana to recover; and finally the years after her return to the US in 1965 and her decision to begin writing her first book.  
 
Her writing utilises the varied experiences she had working in different jobs throughout her life, to give the reader a rich and nuanced understanding of her and her counterparts’ lives. 
After spending time in France, Angelou returned to the US in 1965 intending to help Malcolm X build his new Organisation of African American Unity. That organisation collapsed with the assassination of Malcolm X that year, and Angelou then began to work more closely with Martin Luther King. When King was assassinated on 4 April 1968 (her 40th birthday) she was devastated. Friends such as James Baldwin encouraged her to begin writing, and in 1969 she completed I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Narrating her changing awareness and struggle for self-fulfilment between the ages of three and 17, it portrayed vividly the characters of her glamorous mother, her proud and dignified grandmother, her beloved brother and her disabled Uncle Willie, as well as the troubled relationships between the races in the south during the depression. 

Works

Bibliography

Lisandrelli, E.S. 1996, Maya Angelou: more than a poet, Enslow Publishers, Springfield, N.J., U.S.A. 
Thursby, J.S. 2011, Critical companion to Maya Angelou: a literary reference to her life and work, Facts On File, New York, N.Y. 
 
McPherson, D.A. 1991, Order out of chaos: the autobiographical works of Maya Angelou, Virago Press, London. 
 
Parker, Stephen. N.d.a., ‘Maya Angelou’, Poetry foundation, 20 Dec 2021, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/maya-angelou  
 
Fox, Margalit, May 28, 2014. Maya Angelou, Lyrical Witness of the Jim Crow South, Dies at 86. New York Times. 08/11/2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/arts/maya-angelou-lyrical-witness-of-the-jim-crow-south-dies-at-86.html  

Didactic approach

Use LfJ approach: https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/lessons/maya-angelou  

Literature

Ethics and civic values

History

Documents