Maya angelou quotes about life changes series#

As Angelou was getting ready for a party on her birthday, April 4, she learned King had been assassinated. to bring attention to his Poor People’s Campaign and decided to take some time to celebrate her 40th birthday before accompanying King. In 1968, things changed for the writer - she was preparing to join forces with Martin Luther King Jr. propelled Angelou to throw herself into her writing But until then, my goodness, those lines worry me like a mosquito in the ear.' The death of Martin Luther King Jr. Even if it’s just six lines, I pull out the champagne. However, Angelou admitted that writing poetry was always a challenge for her: 'When I come close to saying what I want to, I’m over the moon. While living in Egypt in the early 1960s, she edited an English-language newspaper and also spent time as a singer, dancer and actress. She authored plays, including one that was produced off-Broadway in 1960. She penned her first verses when she was still in school, and in the late 1950s, Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she interacted with James Baldwin and other writers. Yet she didn't forget the wide breadth of literature she'd taken in, which included works by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Emily Dickinson and William Shakespeare. But even when she wouldn't speak, Angelou studied and memorized poems, which gave her a unique understanding of language.Ī desire to express her love for poetry by speaking it aloud helped draw Angelou out of her mutism. Following this trauma, Angelou sought refuge in mutism. At the age of seven, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, who was killed (presumably by family members seeking retribution) after she reported the crime. Angelou herself commented on its appeal in a 2008 interview: 'You know, if you're lonely you feel you've been done down, it's nice to have 'And Still I Rise.'' Poetry helped Angelou with her mutism as a childĪngelou grew up amid the degradations of the Jim Crow South. Years after it was published in 1978, the poem continues to reach readers and audiences, cutting across racial lines and national boundaries. Its message of liberation and survival was a consistent theme in Angelou's work.

Maya angelou quotes about life changes series#

He was convicted and imprisoned, and after his release he was beaten to death, a series of events that led her to stop talking for a period.Maya Angelou's 'Still I Rise' is a powerful poem that draws on a range of influences, including her personal background and the African American experience in the United States. Long before the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements brought sexual assault into the national conversation, she wrote in her 1969 memoir about her own experience with sexual trauma, and how her mother’s boyfriend raped her when she was a child. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was Maya Angelou’s first bookĪs the world marks her birthday in 2018, Maya Angelou’s breakout work is particularly relevant to the national conversation. John Bohn/The Boston Globe-Getty Images 1. #GoogleDoodle #StillIRise → /U6xqOKeN1R- Google Doodles ApHere are five things to know about literary legend Maya Angelou: Maya Angelou reads poetry to Tufts University students at the Somerville Theatre in Somerville, Mass. Louis in 1928, but in the 1950s came up with “Maya Angelou,” which is a portmanteau of sorts, by combining her childhood nickname and a riff on her then-husband’s surname. In fact, Angelou’s name is more of a stage name than a pen name Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Angelou’s jobs included: cook, waitress, sex-worker, dancer, actor, playwright, editor at an English-language newspaper in Egypt, Calypso singer, and cast member of the opera Porgy and Bess. And Google is celebrating Angelou’s birthday with a Doodle.īut while Maya Angelou best known today for her writing - as the author of more than 30 books and the recipient of more than 50 honorary degrees - she had many different careers before becoming a writer, and all before the age of 40, as TIME pointed out in her 2014 obituary. National Poetry Month in April coincides with what would have been the 90th birthday of the poet Maya Angelou, who died May 28, 2014, at the age of 86. It’s only fitting that the first week of U.S.