MAYA ANGELOU

Maya Angelou



Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou has been a great contributor to English literature. She is greatly respected by everyone that have read her works. Maya Angelou has been an inspiration to all that have read what she has written. She is one of the best African American poets. This is why I have chosen to dedicate this project to Maya Angelou in honor of Black History Month.

She has been an inspiration to all African American women all over the world. Maya Angelou is a remarkable Renaissance woman who is known as one of the great writers of contemporary literature. As a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, she continues to travel the world, spreading her enormous talent. She wrote most of her poems about self respect for example one of her most famous poems was "Still I Rise". I am sure that it was a huge inspiration to all the African American women in the world.

Her style of writing is inspirational. Although she is a great poet she is mostly known for her autobiographical books such as I know why the cage bird sings, which was nominated for the national book award. Maya angelou is constantly trying to improve the lives of women in other countries who are not as fortunate as her. For these reasons Maya Angelou is a great figure on our society. By the time Maya Angelou was in her early twenties she already had a tough life. She had a lot of jobs. From being a cocktail waitress to a dancer her hardest job would be raising a child by herself. Her parents got divorced when she was a teenager.

She began producing books after some friends, including author James Baldwin, heard Angelou's stories of her childhood in Arkansas, where her grandmother ran a general store, and St. Louis, Missouri, where her mother lived. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a chronicle of her life up to age sixteen and ending with the birth of her son, Guy published in 1970 was a great success. Many of the stories in the book are depressing, especially the one where she was raped by her mother's boyfriend at age eight. In 1959, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. From 1961 to 1962 she was ...