An Analysis Of Maya Angelou And Alice Walker

Have you ever thought about becoming a singer, poet, dancer, screenwriter, journalist, civil rights activist, and a memoirist all in a lifetime? Well Maya Angelou did just that. She first began as a singer and dancer, next she became a journalist and civil right activist, and then she later became a memoirist, screenwriter, and a poet. She met many other role models and even fundraised for Martin Luther King Jr. She was also honored for different kinds of awards.

Maya Angelou was an inspiring activist, poet, and woman. Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928. Throughout her lifetime she explored her career options as an actress, dancer, singer, writer, and editor among many other careers. Angelou had a tough childhood. Her parents divorced when she was very young and she was sent to live with her grandmother in Arkansas along with her brother Bailey. As an African American, Angelou experienced discrimination and racial prejudices. Angelou gave birth to her son Guy, at the age of sixteen and married her first husband Tosh Angelos, at the age of twenty-four. Angelou and Tosh divorced years later however, she did get married a couple of more times. Angelou experienced many

Maya Angelou, named at birth, Marguerite Johnson was on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her and her family moved from St. Louis to Stamps, Arkansas, where she was raised growing up. Maya Angelou was an American author, dancer, screenwriter, actress, poet and civil rights activist. Angelou gained a majority of her fame with the memoir she wrote in 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This memoir made literary history as being the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. Angelou received many awards and honors throughout her entire career. These awards included two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, in 2005 and 2009. Angelou became one of the most legendary and influential

Maya Angelou is a phenomenal woman. She rises through all things that come her way and she refuses to back down. Angelou chose at a very young age to be a writer and a role model for many people. She believes that everyone should be treated equally and that the world should come together as a unity. Angelou had many careers but is known mostly for her poetic creations. She has come a long way from where she started and I think anyone can agree with me when I say, she has made us all proud with her accomplishments. Angelou writes poetry to inform and encourage others to carry on through the worst of times. She is a strong, confident, inspirational woman and I am more than honored to be doing my senior paper on her.

At the request of Dr. Martin Lutheran King Jr., she became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1975. Maya is presently on the board of American Film Institute, and is one of the few female members of the board of the Directors Guide. (Source card #5)      Besides being a writer she is also an

While they were born in different centuries, Maya Angelou and Sojourner Truth led parallel fights for African American equality. Despite living in different time periods, both of these women laid the groundwork for activists to come. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797, she later escaped which led her to become an abolitionist to fight for the freedom of others. Maya Angelou was born almost 150 years later in 1928, and faced much of the same hate-fuelled racism. Living in the south during the Civil Rights Era pushed Angelou to become an activist to fight for those without a voice. Through peaceful protest using poetry, both Truth and Angelou made progress in their fight for equality of African Americans and complete social

Maya Angelou is a leading literary voice of the African-American community. She writes of the triumph of the human spirit over hardship and adversity. “Her style captures the ca-dences and aspirations of African American women whose strength she celebrates.” (Library of Chattanooga State, n. d.) Maya has paved the way for children who has had a damaged

“You have tried to destroy me and although I perish daily I shall not be moved,” (Angelou, 2014), says Maya Angelou in her Commencement speech to the 1992 Spelman College graduates. Poet and award-winning author, Maya Angelou, is most well known for her poetry, essay collection, and memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou happened to be the first black female cable car conductor who later started a career in theatre and music (Maya Angelou: Poet and Historian, n.d.). Once her acting and musical career began to take off, Angelou began touring with productions and released her first album Miss Calypso (Maya Angelou Fast Facts, 2017). Later, Angelou earned a Tony Award nomination for her role in the play Look Away and an Emmy Award nomination for the work she performed in the television mini-series Roots (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). Angelou was also the first African American woman to have her screenplay produced (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). Out of the number of poetry collections Angelou published, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die happened to be her most famous collection that was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize (Maya Angelou: Poet, Civil Rights Activist, Author, Activist, 2017). The focus of this paper is to critique Angelou’s credibility, sincerity, and appeal to her whole audience in her delivery during the Spelman Commencement Address in 1992.

The inspiring African-American woman born in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri has been one of the many influential voices of our time. Educating herself and having love for the arts helped mold her life into what she imagined becoming a poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and even a civil rights activist. During her early years while still in High School Dr. Angelou experienced brutal racial discrimination directing her to the values of traditional African-Americans.

Unlike Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou devoted her life to inspiring African Americans to do whatever they wanted to do no matter what other people said. She also wanted to inspire people. Her poems Phenomenal Woman and Still I Rise inspired not only the African American people, which is was intended to, but the whole world including men. Like Hughes, Maya Angelou did not think that one day she would be reading one of her poems at President Clinton 's inauguration. But she did think that she would inspire young African American writers that they too could become wonderful writers in a white society. Angelou is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary black literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman.

Both Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston are similar to having the same concept about black women to have a voice and being perspective. These two authors are phenomenal women who impacted on the southern hospitality roots. Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston comment on fear, avenge, and righteousness among African American women that are abuse of their power. Walker and Hurston uses the same theory of feminism to point out the liberation that is told through the story of survival. The comparison of the two authors expresses hardship among characters to discover their purpose. Also, Walker fines Hurston books intruding on into detail the heritage. Hurston narratives was not dull it was more upscale and interesting to talk about change to become reality. Walker and Hurston develop a comparison of the folk tale tradition in black culture. (Howard 200)

I chose to write the paper as a timeline of Maya Angelou’s life. I started with birth, and concluded with present day, as Maya is still alive. Maya Angelou is not only a poet, but an author, activist, professor, and screenplay written. Maya Angelou was

Maya Angelou is one out of the best known poets. She has written a lot of poems that inspires and assist people with their lives. She has a “desire humbleness to learn and experience all that life has to offer her” (gale biography in context, “Maya Angelou More than a Poet”) which makes her poems have a meaning to them. In addition, Maya Angelou got a lot of pieces of poems considered equality to her experience as a human of the United States during race times and her experience as a person who worked with other civil right activist. Maya Angelou uses deep themes that leaves the reader to think about the topic is being talked about. In her poem, “Still I Rise” she talks metaphorically about discrimination. In the poem, it states, “does my haughtiness offend you? ( the poetry foundation, “Maya Angelou”). This quote from the poem shows how the rest of the poem is about people believe they is better than other people and that the other people should suffer because they are inferior to the people, but the people being abused should not be embarrassed of who they are and be thankful for life(“Maya Angelou More than a Poet 1”).

Maya Angelou is one of the most important American Authors who ever lived. She was an African-American woman who spoke her mind and when someone told her she couldn’t do something, it made her want to do it even more so that she could prove them wrong (Shapiro). Her life was incredibly difficult, but it made her who she was and influenced her writing and poetry immensely. As Gary Younge once said, “To know her life story is to simultaneously wonder what on earth you have been doing with your life and feel glad that you didn’t have to go through half the things she has.” She is important because she influenced women, people of color, and anyone who has gone through hard times. Maya Angelou is an essential American author because of

    Alice Walker and Maya Angelou are two contemporary African-American writers.  Although almost a generation apart in age, both women display a remarkable similarity in their lives.  Each has written about her experiences growing up in the rural South, Ms. Walker through her essays and Ms. Angelou in her autobiographies.  Though they share similar backgrounds, each has a unique style which gives to us, the readers, the gift of their exquisite humanity, with all of its frailties and strengths, joys and sorrows.