Maya Angelou

Born April 4, 1928

Books:
Mom & Me & Mom
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water fore I Die Gather Together in My Name Singin and Swingin and Gettin Merry Like Christmas The Heart of a Woman All Gods Children Need Traveling Shoes A Song Flung Up to Heaven Phenomenal Woman

Childhood Parents divorced when she was three years old Lived with her paternal grandma whom she and her brother called Momma She was raped when she was 8 years old, by her mothers boyfriend Mr. Freeman Became silent, from post trauma, and guilt of Mr. Freemans murder Loved literature, was introduced to literature by Mrs. Bertha, a kind neighbor.

As an Adult and Occupations Civil Rights Activist Associate editor of The Arab Observer Feature editor of The African Review Administrator of University of Ghana Friends with James Baldwin Singer Taught at Wake Forest University American Studies Delivered poem at Bill Clintons presidential inauguration She joined the Harlem Writers Guild where she met several major African-American authors, including John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Guy, Paule Marshall, and Julian Mayfield After meeting and hearing civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.speak in 1960, she organized "the legendary"Cabaret for Freedom to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

Quotes

The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time that she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power. The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. My race groaned. It was our people falling. It was another lynching, yet another Black man hanging on a tree. One more woman ambushed and raped. . . . This might be the end of the world. If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help. It would all be true, the accusations that we were lower types of human beings. Only a little higher than the apes.

Style and Genre Bildungsroman- a genre that focuses on the growth of a character in their coming of age or from their youth to their adulthood. Generally psychologically and morally Writing can be stiff occasionally, but its to show that she can write like a proper English literature writer. Its what she considers her adult voice in contrast to her child voice which is less stiff, more casual and colloquial Style is witty, ironic, dynamic, and candid. As witty as a young black little girl who must learn the ways of the streets fast, ironic as an adult who is well learned in literature and has dry sense of humor, and as candid as a young girl who cannot help but say what is on her mind. Combines both aspects of not culturally rounded and proper black girl, and a sophisticated professor who is narrating through her adult mind.