Intro to Angelou

8/7/2019 Intro to Angelou

1/15


2/15

Maya AngelouMaya AngelouBiography and place in literatureBiography and place in literature


3/15

Who is Maya Angelou?Born in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri

(compare with Langston Hughes, born

in 1902 - by this time Hughes hadalready written A Negro Speaks of

Rivers)

Missouri is pretty much central Mid-

West America - was very much slave

country.


4/15

While Hughes was also born in Missouri, his path involved

significant travel in America as well as overseas before returning to

settle in New York. Angelou on the other hand had a much less

fortunate path of travel.


5/15

Early life...

The first 17 years of her life her very rough. At age three,

her parents marriage ended. The father sent the children

to Arkansas - further South, essentially further into

Confederate territory, which was traditionally linked to

slavery.

Here they lived with their fathers mother - Annie

Henderson. There was some success here as Annie wasquite a savvy business woman.


6/15

Early life...

However, four years later, the father returned and sent

the children back to their birth mother in St. Louis,

where they were born.

At age eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was

sexually abused and raped by her mothers boyfriend,

Mr. Freeman. She confessed this to her brother, whothen told the rest of the family.


7/15

Early life...

Freeman was found guilty, but was only jailed for one day. Four

days after his release, he was found kicked to death, probably

by Angelous uncles.

Angelou, at this point, became mute. She stated I thought, my

voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And

then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice

could kill anyone.

She remained mute for nearly 5 years.


8/15

Influence...

We would expect then that Angelou would have a fascination

with language. She see real violence in power in words and

language. It seems natural that she would become a writer dueto her significant respect, even fear of, the power of words.

Having overcome her desperate fear of words, we might

expect Angelou to attempt to use language for good - to

inspire, to self-affirm, to regain the voice she lost.


9/15

Adult life

Throughout the 50s Angelou devoted herself to the arts. During

this time she was both a dancer and singer, receiving training on

scholarship in dance.

This allowed her to get out of America. She toured throughout

Europe with the all black opera Porgy and Bess. She became

fascinated with the languages of other countries and actively tried

to learn the language of every country she visited.

She is now proficient in a number of different languages.


10/15

Adult life

It wasnt until the late 50s that Angelou moved to New York (consider, Hughes had

been living in New Jersey - New York Citys neighbour - since the 1930s).

She became involved in the civil rights movement and became close friends with

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X - both key figures in the civil rights movement.Both were assassinated.

King was assassinated on Angelous birthday. Since that day she has not

celebrated her birthday, instead she sent flowers to Kings wife, until her death in

2006.

This inspired her to write I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - this autobiography of

her first 17 years of life brought her international recognition as a writer.


11/15

Adult life

She ended up writing 5 autobiographies, covering the majority of her early

life.

Angelou would go on to become Oprah Winfreys close friend and mentor,

write the first screen play by a black writer to ever be produced and recite

her poem On the Pulse of the Morning at the inauguration of President Bill

Clinton - the first poet since Robert Frost spoke at John F. Kennedys

inauguration in 1961.

This year she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by BarackObama - the highest civilian award offered by the US Government for

contributions to world peace and culture.


12/15


13/15

Hughes and Angelou

Were acquaintances and potentially close friends. It is likely that they new each

other in New York. However, we should not assume that they wrote together or

produced projects together. Their ideas about poetry may have been shared as

they did tend to a similar approach to the African American identity.

Angelous poetry follows Hughes in that she explains and illuminates the

condition, identity and culture of African Americans in the US, but without

attacking or alienating her white audience. Like Hughes, she is about

empowerment, not division or conflict. We should expect her poetry to re-visionthe African American identity - to show it for what it really is as a means of

getting her African American reader to see themselves differently and as a

means of breaking the white stereotype about African Americans.


14/15

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'll 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.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.Weakened by my soulful cries.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame

I riseUp from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin' in my own back yard.

1

7

5

6

4

3

2


15/15

Intro to Angelou

Documents

Transcript of Intro to Angelou