Marguerite Annie Johnson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, the second child of Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer. Angelou's older brother, Bailey Jr., nicknamed Marguerite "Maya", derived from "My" or "Mya Sister". When Angelou was three and her brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage" ended, and their father sent them to Stamps, Arkansas, alone by train, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. In "an astonishing exception" to the harsh economics of African Americans of the time, Angelou's grandmother prospered financially during the Great Depression and World War II because the general store she owned sold needed basic commodities and because "she made wise and honest investments".
Early life
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou | Early life
St. Louis, Missouri. St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis, Missouri
i know why the caged bird sings poem explanation
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It is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of character and a love of literature can help overcome racism and trauma.
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who is the author of this poem?
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Maya Angelou.
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where was she born?
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And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone." 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.
Maya Angelou | Early life
Many of her readers identify her as a poet first and an autobiographer second, but like Lynn Z. Bloom, many critics consider her autobiographies more important than her poetry.
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou | History
Maya Angelou studied and began writing poetry at a young age, having "fallen in love with poetry in Stamps, Arkansas", where she grew up and the setting of her first autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969). At the age of eight, she was raped, as recounted in "Caged Bird." She dealt with her trauma by memorizing and reciting great works of literature, including poetry, which helped bring her out of her self-imposed muteness. According to scholar Yasmin Y. DeGout, literature also affects Angelou's sensibilities as the poet and writer she becomes, especially the "liberating discourse that would evolve in her own poetic canon".
Poetry of Maya Angelou | Background
She started high school at the notable Thelma Yellin High School for the Arts majoring in theatre, but a year later she moved to Ironi He, a regular municipal high school. She was not enlisted to the Israel Defense Forces, because she was underweight.
Maya Maron | Early life
Moore was born on June 11, 1989, in Jefferson City, Missouri. She is the daughter of Kathryn Moore.
Maya Moore | Early life
Eshet was born in Jerusalem, Israel, to a family of Jewish descent. She has two younger sisters. She grew up in moshav Mesilat Zion.
Maya Eshet | Early life
Josephine Domingue was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Josephine Sabel | Early life
Hayes was born in New York City to Irene Smith and Derek Hayes. She has four siblings. Hayes attended Newark Academy, a private school located in Livingston, New Jersey. She grew up in West Orange, New Jersey.
Maya Hayes | Early life
Soltero was raised in Mayagüez.
Denisse Soltero | Early and personal life
Kelly-Rosales was born in Honduras, but grew up in Ottumwa, Iowa in the United States.
Angelo Kelly-Rosales | Early life
Maya Angelou (; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) 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.
Maya Angelou | Introduction
Jacqueline Bouvier was born on 6 October 1920. She grew up tending her aunt's goats in Camargue. She studied drama.
Jacqueline Pagnol | Early life
and Malcolm X. Angelou was the first poet to read an inaugural poem since Robert Frost at the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, and the first Black and woman. Her recitation resulted in more fame and recognition for her previous works, and broadened her appeal "across racial, economic, and educational boundaries".
Poetry of Maya Angelou | Critical reception and response
DuPlessis was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1941 to Joseph L. and Eleanor Blau; her father was a professor, and her mother was a librarian. She received her BA from Barnard College in 1963, and her MA and PhD from Columbia University in 1964 and 1970 respectively. Her dissertation project was titled "The Endless Poem: Paterson of William Carlos Williams and The Pisan Cantos of Ezra Pound".
Rachel Blau DuPlessis | Early life
Melaku was born in Addis Ababa and raised in Washington D.C. She is of Ethiopian descent. She began writing poems and songs at the age of 12.
LoLa Monroe | Early life
Many of the songs she wrote during that period later found their way to her later poetry collections. She eventually gave up performing for a writing career. Despite considering herself a poet and playwright, she wrote "Caged Bird" in 1969, which brought her international recognition and acclaim. Many of her readers consider her a poet first and an autobiographer second, but she is better known for her prose works. She has published several volumes of poetry, and has experienced similar success as a poet. Early in her writing career, she began alternating a volume of poetry with an autobiography. In 1993, she recited one of her best-known poems, "On the Pulse of Morning", at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton.
Poetry of Maya Angelou | Introduction
Chloe Marie Helene Sauvourel was born on June 18, 2000, in the Central African Republic.
Chloe Sauvourel | Early life
She was born and raised in Harlem, New York City.
Maxine Lewis | Early life
Also included was "On the Pulse of Morning". Angelou's publisher placed four previously-published poems in a smaller volume, entitled "Phenomenal Woman "in 1995. Angelou studied and began writing poetry at a young age. After her rape at the age of eight, as recounted in her first autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings "(1969), she dealt with her trauma by memorizing and reciting great works of literature, including poetry, which helped bring her out of her self-imposed muteness. Angelou considered herself a playwright and poet when her editor Robert Loomis challenged her to write "Caged Bird", but she has been best known for her autobiographies.
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou | History
Finishing school in Switzerland as an interpreter of English and Russian, in 1962, she received a scholarship to study in the United States and settled in Chicago. Participating in many events of the American civil rights movement, she attended the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 and then left for Cuba by way of Mexico.
Maya Surduts | Early life
Angelo was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1924. She was educated at Woman's College of the University of North Carolina. Her husband, Harold Levy, died in 1998. They had one child, a son, Christopher Levy.
Bonnie Angelo | Early life
"And Still I Rise" is Maya Angelou's third volume of poetry. She studied and began writing poetry at a young age. After her rape at the age of eight, as recounted in her first autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969), she dealt with her trauma by memorizing and reciting great works of literature, including poetry, which helped bring her out of her self-imposed muteness. The publication of "And Still I Rise" occurred during one of the most productive periods of Angelou's career. She had written songs for Roberta Flack and had composed movie scores. She had written articles, short stories, TV scripts and documentaries, autobiographies, and poetry; she produced plays; and she was named a visiting professor of several colleges and universities.
And Still I Rise | Background
Dalya was born August 3, 1918 in New York City.
Jacqueline Dalya | Early life
Marian Adele Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine, the daughter of Stephen Longfellow and Marianne Preble Longfellow. Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was her uncle. Her grandfather, William Pitt Preble, was a judge and diplomat.
Marian Longfellow O'Donoghue | Early life
Cervantes was born in 1954 in the Mission District of San Francisco, to parents of Mexican and Native American (Chumash) ancestry.. After her parents divorced when she was five, she grew up in San Jose with her mother, grandmother and brother. She grew up speaking English exclusively. This was strictly enforced by her parents, who allowed only English to be spoken at home by her and her brother. This was to avoid the racism that was occurring in her community at that time. This loss of language and a struggle to find her true identity inspired her poetry later on in life.
Lorna Dee Cervantes | Early life
Jama was born and raised in Bristol, where she attended Cotham School. She is of Somali descent on her father's side and Swedish descent on her mother's side. She was named after Maya Angelou. Jama moved to London at the age of 16 to pursue a career as an actress.
Maya Jama | Early life
Mona Sulaiman was born in a barrio in Cotabato on 9 June 1942 to Kudelat and Aminan Sulaiman.
Mona Sulaiman | Early life
In 1933, Neu was born in Carroll, Iowa.
Arthur Neu | Early life
Angelopoulos was born in Nea Smyrni, south Athens, Greece and was raised in central Athens.
Makis Angelopoulos | Early life
"Unless otherwise stated, the items in this list are from Gillespie et al, pp. 186–191."
List of Maya Angelou works | Literature
As scholar Marcia Ann Gillespie writes, Angelou had "fallen in love with poetry" during her early childhood in Stamps, Arkansas. After her rape at the age of eight, which she depicted in "Caged Bird", Angelou memorized and studied great works of literature, including poetry. According to "Caged Bird", her friend Mrs. Flowers encouraged her to recite them, which helped bring her out of her self-imposed period of muteness caused by her trauma. Angelou was the first poet to read an inaugural poem since Robert Frost read his poem "The Gift Outright" at President John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961, and the first Black woman.
On the Pulse of Morning | Background
Maya Horgan Famodu is from a Nigerian father and an American mother. She spent most of her youth in Minnesota, United States. She attended Pomona College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental sciences and completed a Prelaw Program at Cornell University.
Maya Horgan Famodu | Early life and education
Maya Angelou, an African-American writer who is best known for her seven autobiographies, was also a prolific and successful poet. She has been called "the black woman's poet laureate", and her poems have been called the anthems of African Americans. Angelou studied and began writing poetry at a young age, and used poetry and other great literature to cope with trauma, as she described in her first and most well-known autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". She became a poet after a series of occupations as a young adult, including as a cast member of a European tour of "Porgy and Bess", and a performer of calypso music in nightclubs in the 1950s.
Poetry of Maya Angelou | Introduction
Gilliss-Chapman was born in the Kandal Province of Cambodia. She was brought to the capital city of Phnom Penh, Cambodia as an orphan. The circumstances around her transport from Kandal to Phnom Penh remain unknown. She was brought to the United States of America in 1991 and resided in the city of Oakland, California.
Maya Gilliss-Chapman | Early life
Born in Sydney, Nova Scotia and raised in Whitney Pier, she is the daughter of Archpriest George A. Francis and Thelma D. Francis, and is a graduate of Saint Mary's University and completed graduate studies at New York University.
Mayann Francis | Early life and education
Giulia Novelli was born in Rome in 1859.
Giulia Novelli | Early life
Maya Zankoul grew up in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and in 2005 moved to her home country, Lebanon, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design in 2007 from Notre Dame University – Louaize.
Maya Zankoul | Early life
Renfroe was born in Amarillo, Texas.
M. K. Wren | Early life
In 1887, at age 13, Montgomery wrote in her diary that she had "early dreams of future fame." She submitted a poem for publication, writing, "I saw myself the wonder of my schoolmates – a little local celebrity." Upon rejection, Montgomery wrote, "Tears of disappointment "would" come in spite of myself, as I crept away to hide the poor crumpled manuscript in the depths of my trunk." She would later write, "down, deep down under all the discouragement and rebuff, I knew I would 'arrive' some day."
Lucy Maud Montgomery | Early life
Dinu studied at the Jean Monnet language school in Bucharest.
Alexandra Dinu | Early life
Powers was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. During elementary school, her first poem was published in the Our Lady of Fatima school newspaper. Powers earned a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing from San Francisco State University, and a Master of Arts in American literature from the University of California, Berkeley. Powers studied literary theory. She also wrote about music, feminism, film, and religion.
Ann Powers | Early life and education
Carmagnola shared her childhood with her brothers Carlos, the eldest, Haydee and Selva. As early as adolescence she showed a natural inclination towards poetry. From a very early age she was devoted to teaching, and simultaneously developing her poetic vocation.
Gladys Carmagnola | Early life
Joana was born in Ghana and attended Achimota School.
Joana Foster | Early life
Born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, she and her family moved to New York City as a child. They lived in public housing after living in shelters. She received an associate degree in Human Services from Bronx Community College.
Diana Ayala | Early life and education
Ariel Leve was born in New York City and grew up with her mother, Sandra Hochman, a poet, in Manhattan. At age five she began traveling to Southeast Asia, where she spent part of the year living in Bangkok, Thailand, with her father.
Ariel S. Leve | Early life
"Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration" (2008) Waterville, Me.: Thorndike Press/Gale Cengage Learning [co-authored with Rosa Johnson Butler and Richard A Long]
Marcia Ann Gillespie | Works
Youssef was born in Damascus, Syria, and learned to play the violin as a child, before switching to the qanun. She moved to the United Kingdom in 2012 due to the Syrian Civil War.
Maya Youssef | Early Life
From 1922 she lived in Yaroslavl, where she taught school and attended Writers' Union meetings; her poetry began to be appreciated there.
Maria Petrovykh | Early life
Alice May Douglas was born in Bath, Maine, June 28, 1865, which remained her residence for the remainder of her life. She had no formal training in writing, saying instead that "All my poems and stories are the result of inspiration."
Alice May Douglas | Early years
Jasanoff grew up in Ithaca, New York and comes from a family of academics. Her parents, Sheila and Jay Jasanoff, are both Harvard professors, and her brother Alan is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was educated at Harvard College before studying for a master's degree at Cambridge, where she worked with Christopher Bayly. She earned her Ph.D. at Yale with Linda Colley, completing the thesis "French and British imperial collecting in Egypt and India, 1780-1820" (Yale, 2002).
Maya Jasanoff | Early life
Mali was born in Toulon, France, to a mother from Chad and a Polish father.
Anais Mali | Early life
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou is author and poet Maya Angelou's collection of poetry, published by Random House in 1994. It is Angelou's first collection of poetry published after she read her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. It contains her previous five books of poetry, published between 1971—1990. Her prose works have been more successful than her poetry, which has received little serious attention by critics.
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou | Introduction
Castro was born in 1945 in New York to Greek Jewish parents before moving to St. Louis to attend Washington University.
Michael Castro (poet) | Early life
She developed a love of poetry at a young age, after discovering a poem by Tennyson, which served as inspiration to start writing her own poems.
Elizabeth Siddal | Early life
Spellman was born March 17, 1905 in Forney, Texas. She earned her Bachlor of Science degree from Texas Woman's University before earning her master's degree from Columbia University Teacher's College and her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa. She then worked as an associate professor of art at Texas State College at Denton.
Coreen Mary Spellman | Early life
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. 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". 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". Many critics consider Angelou's autobiographies more important than her poetry.
Maya Angelou | Poetry
Born in 1960 in Greenwich, Connecticut, Clement moved in 1961 with her family to Mexico City, where she later attended Edron Academy. She moved to the United States to finish high school at Cranbrook Kingswood School, before studying English Literature and Anthropology at New York University. She received her MFA from the University of Southern Maine. She is the co-director and founder, with her sister Barbara Sibley, of the San Miguel Poetry Week. She lives in Mexico City, Mexico.
Jennifer Clement | Early life
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971) is the first collection of poems by African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou. Many of the poems in "Diiie" were originally song lyrics, written during Angelou's career as a night club performer, and recorded on two albums before the publication of Angelou's first autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969). Angelou considers herself a poet and a playwright, but is best known for her seven autobiographies. Early in her writing career she began a practice of alternating the publication of an autobiography and a volume of poetry.
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie | Introduction
Born in 1929 in Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico, she is the daughter of a Mexican-American mother and an American father. Growing up in the 1930s under Mexico's prevalent anti-Catholicism, she learned about home masses and sisters who had to remain incognita while teaching.
Marjorie Bradford Melville | Early life
Four years later, when Angelou was seven and her brother eight, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning" 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. Angelou became mute for almost five years, believing, as she stated, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name.
Maya Angelou | Early life
Samuel Little in Bucksport, Maine, she received her education from private tutors. Her year at private school allowed her to teach. Whitney enjoyed writing poetry and had an interest in sculpture.
Anne Whitney | Early life
Boyle was born in Midvale, Idaho.
Judy Boyle | Early life
Yasur was born in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan and went to high school in Tel-Aviv, majoring in Film and Photography, she went on to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem where she studied Theatre, Communication and Journalism studies. She holds a Master's degree in dramaturgy from the University of Amsterdam where she graduated with distinction.
Maya Arad Yasur | Early Life
Engle's father was born in Los Angeles, California and her mother in Trinidad, Cuba. Although Engle was born and raised in California, growing up, she spent many summers with her extended family in Cuba. As a child, she was introduced to poetry in Spanish, particularly the works of José Martí.
Margarita Engle | Early life
Amescua was born in Austin, Texas. Her father was born in Michoacán, Mexico. Her mother was Mexican American. Her dual identity as a Latina and Tejana helped to mold the major themes present throughout Amescua's poetry and manuscripts. She writes beautifully what she knows: poems about her family and beyond. She also wrote a picture book manuscript through the lens of her character Luz Jiménez, a Nahua educator and art muse living in Mexico, which won the 2016 New Visions Honor Award. She continues to write poetry and picture books.
Gloria Amescua | Early life
After graduating from Spelman in 1992, Ezeilo went on to receive her Juris Doctorate in Law from the University of Florida College of Law. At the College of Law, she met fellow law student James Ezeilo, whom she married in 1995.
Angelou Ezeilo | Early life
Senécal had a solitary childhood and attended school at the École normale de Saint Hyacinthe in La Patrie. She contracted tuberculosis in her late teens and her long convalescence afforded time for extensive reading and developing her poetry.
Éva Senécal | Early life and education
Mariye was born in Las Vegas, Nevada and graduated from UCLA with a BA in Theater Arts.
Lily Mariye | Early life
And Still I Rise is author Maya Angelou's third volume of poetry, published by Random House in 1978. It was published during one of the most productive periods in Angelou's career; she had written three autobiographies and published two other volumes of poetry up to that point. Angelou considered herself a poet and a playwright, but was best known for her seven autobiographies, especially her first," I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", although her poetry has also been successful. She began, early in her writing career, alternating the publication of an autobiography and a volume of poetry. Although her poetry collections have been best-sellers, they have not received serious critical attention.
And Still I Rise | Introduction
Lamarque was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and was of partial French descent on her father's side. At age 12, she began writing poetry.
Nydia Lamarque | Early life
Through the writing of her autobiography, Angelou became one of the first African American women who was able to publicly discuss her personal life and was recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for blacks and women. It made her "without a doubt, ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer", and "a major autobiographical voice of the time".
Poetry of Maya Angelou | Background
Deschamps was born in Repentigny, Quebec.
Marie Deschamps | Early life
"Mom & Me & Mom" (2013) is the seventh of Maya Angelou's series of autobiographies. It was completed 11 years after the publication of her previous autobiography, "A Song Flung Up to Heaven" (2002), and over thirty years after she wrote her first autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969). "Mom & Me & Mom", in which Angelou relates her relationship with her mother Vivian Baxter, was published shortly before Mother's Day and Angelou's 85th birthday. In the time period between the publication of her sixth and seventh autobiographies, Angelou was the first African-American woman and living poet selected by Sterling Publishing, who placed 25 of her poems in a volume of their "Poetry for Young People" series in 2004.
Mom &amp; Me &amp; Mom | Background
Marie Adélaïde Alexandrine Chamonal was born in 1869, in Saint-Amour, in the Jura Mountains. Her parents were "well-off peasants" who apprenticed her to an aunt who ran a dry good store; she ran away from the aunt at fifteen, and landed alone in Paris.
Andrée Mégard | Early life
Freire was born in Montevideo, Uruguay.
María Freire | Early life
born in 1859 and Grace I. born in 1862.
Martha Louise Rayne | Early life
Born in Havana, Cuba, Cruz studied Art History and Political Science at New York University.
Amada Cruz | Early Life
However, she finds Angelou's other poems "mired in hackneyed metaphor and forced rhyme".
Poetry of Maya Angelou | General themes
Angelou has been a prolific poet, and has published several volumes of poetry, many of which have been best-sellers. She has experienced similar success as a poet as she did as an autobiographer. She began, early in her writing career, of alternating the publication of an autobiography and a volume of poetry. Her first volume of poetry, "Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie", published in 1971 shortly after "Caged Bird", became a best-seller and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Many of the poems in "Diiie" were songs that Angelou had previously performed and recorded.
Poetry of Maya Angelou | Poetry
Marguerite Annie Johnson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, the second child of Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer. Angelou's older brother, Bailey Jr., nicknamed Marguerite "Maya", derived from "My" or "Mya Sister". When Angelou was three and her brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage" ended, and their father sent them to Stamps, Arkansas, alone by train, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. In "an astonishing exception" to the harsh economics of African Americans of the time, Angelou's grandmother prospered financially during the Great Depression and World War II because the general store she owned sold needed basic commodities and because "she made wise and honest investments".
Maya Angelou | Early life
She was born in south-west Surrey. She attended Downe House School from 1974 to 1980. She attended the University of London from 1981 to 1984, where she studied English and Drama.
Fru Hazlitt | Early life
Angelou's autobiographies "stretch time and place", from Arkansas to Africa and back to the US, and span almost forty years, beginning from the start of World War II to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Themes in Maya Angelou's autobiographies | Introduction
"The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou" is Maya Angelou's first collection of poetry. By the time of its publication in 1994, she had published five autobiographies, eventually going on to publish seven, and five books of poetry. She began, early in her writing career, alternating the publication of an autobiography and a volume of poetry. Her publisher, Random House, placed the poems of her previous volumes in this collection, perhaps to capitalize on her popularity following her reading of her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. The volumes included in the collection are "Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie" (1971), "Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well" (1975), "And Still I Rise" (1978), "Shaker, Why Don't You Sing?" (1983), and "I Shall Not Be Moved" (1990).
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou | History
Born in Decatur, Illinois, and raised in Santa Monica, California, she attended Santa Monica High School.
Nan Martin | Early life
Ada Colau was born in Barcelona, and grew up in the Guinardó neighbourhood. She went to school at the Santa Anna and Febrer Academies, and went on to study philosophy at the University of Barcelona but lacks the pertinent degree due to leaving her studies before completion, precisely by one subject, which she claims was due to economic instability in her family.
Ada Colau | Early life
Herrera was born to natives of the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. She was born in Sutherland, Nebraska, where her parents had been working in the sugar-beet fields. She was raised in Aurora, Illinois, where her parents moved to escape a migratory life of farm work. Herrera began writing poetry as a grade school student when she met Gwendolyn Brooks, former Poet Laureate of Illinois, and heard her read her poetry at Herrera's elementary school.
M. Miriam Herrera | Early life
Lanphier was born in El Dorado, California, the eldest child of six born to Percival Caspar Lanphier and Emily Elenora Olson. She graduated from Oakland High School in 1924.
Fay Lanphier | Early life
Close friends of Maria Lavalle Urbina describe how influential her family and upbringing were to her development.
María Lavalle Urbina | Early life
She was born in Arkansas. She graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
Jeanne L. Phillips | Early life
"I Shall Not Be Moved" is Maya Angelou's fifth volume of poetry. She studied and began writing poetry at a young age. After her rape at the age of seven, as recounted in her first autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" (1969), she dealt with her trauma by memorizing and reciting great works of literature, including poetry, which helped bring her out of her self-imposed muteness. Although Angelou considered herself a playwright and poet when her editor Robert Loomis challenged her to write "Caged Bird", she has been best known for her autobiographies, and many critics consider her autobiographies more important than her poetry.
I Shall Not Be Moved (poetry collection) | Background
Neubauer states that Angelou focuses on the lives of African Americans from the time of slavery to the 1960s, and that her themes "deal broadly with the painful anguish suffered by blacks forced into submission, with guilt over accepting too much, and with protest and basic survival". Critic Robert B. Stepto states that the poem "One More Round", in "And Still I Rise" is heavily influenced by the work and protest songs of the past. The even-number stanzas in the eight-stanza poem create a refrain like those found in many work songs and are variations of many protest poems. Stepto is impressed with Angelou's creation of a new art form out of work and protest forms, but does not feel that she develops it enough.
Poetry of Maya Angelou | Racism/liberation
Marie Booth Russell was born in Brooklyn. She attended St. Joseph's Academy in Flushing, and Emerson College in Boston.
Marie Booth Russell | Early life
On March 20, 1942 Poulet was born in Washington, DC, U.S.
Anne Poulet | Early life
Rouass was born in Stepney, London to a Moroccan father and an Indian mother.
Laila Rouass | Early life
Howell was from Llangefni, Anglesey. She was related to poet Denise Levertov's mother, Beatrice Spooner-Jones Levertoff. Scientist John Charnley remembered knowing Myfanwy Howell in Anglesey when he was a teenager evacuated to the island during World War II.
Myfanwy Howell | Early life
On 3 March 1978, Abreu was born in Arronches, Portugal.
Isabel Abreu | Early life
Angelina was born in Huntington Beach, California.
Eva Angelina | Early life
Ruiz was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and attended Los Alamos High School.
Harriet Ruiz | Early life and education
Sojourner grew up in upstate New York. As a child she was an avid reader.
Mary Sojourner | Early life
Maya Marcel-Keyes was raised in Darnestown, Maryland. She attended Oakcrest School in McLean, Virginia, a Catholic girls high school. Marcel-Keyes worked with a tribal rights group in southern India in her gap year before matriculating at Brown University in 2005.
Maya Marcel-Keyes | Early life