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Maya Angelou was born in St Louis, Missouri in 1928. At age three she and her brother were sent to live with their grandparents because of fighting parents. A childhood trauma was responsible for a five-year period of silence in which she spoke only to her brother Bailey. Brought up in a strict Christian setting, Maya Angelou endured poverty, abusive relationships, and violence before becoming one of America's most prominent writers and artists.

Maya Angelou speaks seven languages, and has been a dancer, singer, and television interviewer. She was the first Black women to run a San Francisco streetcar, the first Black women to write the screenplay for a modern motion picture, and the first to direct one. She has acted on Broadway, adapted Sophocles' Ajax for the modern stage, cut two records, produced and written a ten-parttelevision series, and been awarded several honorary degrees. Her books and poetry collections, for which she is most famous, are required texts at many high schools and universities. 

Maya Angelou started her life to survive and seems now to live it for others. She reminds us that one must not only dream about successful intentions, but must actively pursue love, courage, and wisdom. 

 

Todd Flynn 

"You may write me down in history, 

With your bitter twisted lies 

You may trod me in the very dirt, 

But still, like dust I rise. 

 

Does my sassiness upset you? 

Why are you beset with gloom? 

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells 

Pumping in my living room. 

 

Just like moons and like suns, 

With the certainty of tides, 

Just like hopes springing high, 

Still I'll rise." 

"Still I Rise" (Maya Angelou, 1969) 

 

 
 

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Further Reading:

 

 

(1) I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Maya Angelou (1969) 

NewYork: Random House 

 

(2) Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now. Maya Angelou 

(1993) New York: Random House. 

 

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Links 

Civil Rights Movement 

Black Feminist Writers 

Black Writers 

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