Maya Angelou grew up and was born in the state of Louis, Missouri. She was a Daughter of two hard-working parents, named Bailey Johnson who was the main provider and worked as a doorkeeper and Vivian Johnson who was a nurse. Eventually, her parents were divorced just when she turned three years old. At a young age, her brother Bailey that was eight years and herself and their grandmother were living in a very small town called Stamps in Arkansas where she absorbed much religious faith and would have to wear old-fashioned courtesy due to the old traditional African American lifestyle.
In her early childhood years, Maya Angelou was raised with her brother Bailey during in the racially segregated South by her paternal grandmother. She earned a scholarship to a drama school. While living there she also goes several part-time jobs as a table dancer in a nightclub works in a mechanic shop, and worked in restaurants. She was one of the first women to be a black female cable car conductor. One of many struggles she faced was finding her true identity, growing up there were a few obstacles she had to face and they were very tuff, making her the women she is today. One of them is becoming homeless with her son Guy and living outside of a parking lot. When she was at the age of fourteen, she had decided to drop of out her studies and fell in love and gave birth to a child named “Guy”. She eventually decided to run away at the age of 16 and considered to live a different lifestyle causing her to become a single parent trying to support herself and her child by working late shifts as a waitress nonetheless, she never gave up on her dreams and goals.
Meanwhile, Dr. Maya Angelou had worked as a writer-producer on the television for one of the best media network called the 20th-century fox 20th. She had written a powerful screenplay for “Georgia, Georgia”, including many other several scripts on the television. For example, “sister, sister”. In early 1998, she also tried to make her first attempt in the filming career and directed with a movie named “Down in Delta”. Before becoming one of America’s most admired writers. Throughout, her empowering writings and poems, she had motivated a generation of African Americans woman who had to struggle to overcome prejudice, discrimination, and, abuse sadly, at the age of seven , she had been raped by her mother’s boyfriend and swore to never speak a word again because she believed she caused her rapist his death. Eventually, Maya Angelou had been retreated into a voluntary silence for about five years or more. When she was brought to stay in stamps to live with her great grandmother, Angelou was helped and supported by two very strong independent women, her mother, Mrs. Bertha who made her feel comfortable to speak again.
Although Angelou writes of her actual experiences growing up and living as a black girl and a black woman in the American South, she also connects her experiences to those of all black women dealing with racism, sexism, and isolation. Her book would always send out an important message to the world about convention and stereotype but mostly to women to have empowerment and be confident in their own female skin and acceptance. Fighting for gender equality and this poem is a phenomenal example of her poetic identity. She expresses that black woman can do anything and also fights for racial equality. Her wise words in her poetry didn’t just come from her heart, they were explaining life, love, and concepts that were very abstract and obscure became clear through her poetry.
One strength was Maya Angelou is referring to herself that she is a phenomenal woman and she left a mark for other women to follow. She describing her poem through her confidence the ways she walks, the rhythm of her hips and the way she smiles on line 30-31. In the book, it also mentions that one of Maya Angelou’s secrets is that she is leaving behind for women that will touch their hearts to lead them to be a phenomenal woman. the tone and the mood of the poem phenomenal men phrases “the joy in my feet” “the sun of my smile” also the click of my heel to create a feeling of joy while in the song “I was here” in the book the tone of the song it was aspiring. Indeed she wanted to achieve so many things like leaving a mark on the world so that everyone knew what she was fighting for.
Just how her poem Caged Bird is an example description of a caged bird that is able to see another bird outside the window but the caged bird is trapped with his clipped wings and his feet are very tired and begins to sings in pain. Then the caged bird wants to be set and dream of flying far away from the world but id trapped in the caged. Also, “To Beat The Child Was Bad Enough” The poem is about the innocence of a child and how it is taken away when a child is beating leaving them alone and mute because when a child is abused, they lose their sense of speech and are afraid to speak. Maya’s perspective of the poem highlights the tragedy of her childhood when she had been raped by monster also known as her mother’s boyfriend and became mute. While reading the poem the tone of the poem changes to fear because you can see the change of events in the poem’s story.
A few years back Maya Angelou came out with an album titled Caged Bird Songs. This contemporary Hip Hop album came out November, 04,2014 includes songs like Still I Rise, Africa, Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, and ten more other songs. Angelou’s voice does not sound like any other female artist in today’s mainstream music. Angelou’s voice is powerful. She is reciting the lyrics more like spoken word over raw beats. Although she is older Maya Angelou is still rapping, if that’s not inspiring then, I do not know what is. Angelou’s title for her album is Caged Bird Songs, similar to one of her books titled, I Know Why The Caged Birds Sing, (a great piece of literature). The caged bird could symbolize her, not only is this a genuine title, but meaningful to those who know the real meaning of what it means and have actually read the book that connects to the title. The artwork for her album is simple yet, clever.
The album has a bird and the color of the bird is golden colored, which can demonstrate Angelou’s heart, Golden hearted. Although she did die, her legacy will continue to live and that has been proven by the success of her new album. This is not her first, she has made another album. Angelou’s family has helped this album become successful. Especially her grandson. What do the lyrics have that are so meaningful? Well, let me break it down, like a B-boy. The album is entirely based on what Dr. Maya Angelou’s poetry would have, especially on black and women empowerment. Maya Angelou quotes,”A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”
Threw this journey I’ve learned that Maya uses imagery consistently in her poem to create a physical image of a woman who loves herself and is very self-confident. She also uses imagery to describe her physical features but the irony of this poem is that the American stand of beauty is to have sharp features like having the perfect body or perfect skin tone. Indeed she uses a lot of metaphors through her poems in the book. Nonetheless, she uses repetitions to stress certain phrases to emphasize the main idea of the poem that she is a phenomenal woman.
Lastly, Women are important to society, not only do we make babies to keep the human race alive, but we are important too because women have been thought to be less than men and that has to be proven wrong. Glorifying women for having all the empowerment to surpass many obstacles that all women have undergone needs to be done a lot more often, but in fact our society created a month for all women and its meaning to it is delivering a message across the world letting others know that women will continue to fight for that they believe is right.
