Julia Chang Lin: A Brief Biography Of Maya Lin

After Maya started speaking again at the age of 13, thanks to one of her teacher and as well as a family friend, Mrs. Bertha Flowers who helped her cope though that ruff time period, she had a whole new outlook on what she wanted to do with her life . “It was through literature that she found her voice again. And what a voice it was and is.” (Emilie M. Townes). By the age of 14, during World War II, Maya was living with her mother and brother in Oakland California. She attended the California Labor School where she had won a scholarship to study drama and dance at San Francisco’s Labor School. Three weeks after graduating from school at the age of 17, she gave birth to her son who was named Guy Johnson. Shortly afterwards, she dropped out of school and became the first African American female cable car conductor.

The Maya of Mesoamerica, along with the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru, made up the high civilizations of the American Indians at the time of the Spanish conquest. Both the Aztecs and the Incas were late civilizations, between 1300-1533 AD, but the Maya of the Yucatan and Guatemala exhibited a cultural continuity spanning more than 2,000 years, 1000 BC-AD 1542. Many aspects of this culture continue yet today. The Ancient Maya in their time had actually refined writing.

On May 1, 1981 a jury declared Maya Ying Lin of Athens, Ohio as the winning memorial design. The memorial’s walls point to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. 58,267 names are inscribed in chronological order of the date of casualty. I believe this depicts the war as a series of human sacrifices and therefore they shall receive a special place in history. Each name is preceded on the west wall or on the east wall by one of two symbols: a diamond or a cross. The diamond denotes that the individual has been declared deceased. The 780 persons whose names are designated by a cross were either missing or prisoners at the end of the war and remains missing and unaccounted for. If a person returns alive, a circle, as a symbol of life, is inscribed over the cross. In the event an individual’s remains are returned or are otherwise accounted for, the diamond is superimposed over the cross. Knowing this, I remain hopeful that some soldiers will return home alive. Walking beside the wall and seeing the names inscribed allowed me to feel great pride in my country as these soldiers gave up their life fighting for the people of America. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial will properly commemorate each soldier for the rest of

The artist of the memorial, Maya Lin, is an American of Asian descent who is famous for her sculptures and land art. Her most famous work, the Vietnam Memorial, was chosen in a contest, and her designs both mesmerized and angered many people. Since them, works and designs she has created for competitions have been mainly memorials and remembrances based on historical events. Her works are intended to use the natural texture and geology of the space around the monument to its advantage in its creation.

Maya Angelou was born April 4, 1928. Her real name is Marguerite Johnson, but she later changed it to Maya. She was born in St. Louis, shortly after her birth her family up and move to Arkansaw. Maya grew up there in the rural parts of Arkansaw, and later married to a South African Freedom Fighter. She lived in Cairo with him, there she began her career as editor of the Arab Observer.

Maya Angelou was born on April 28, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri to Bailey and Vivian Johnson. Her given name was Marguerite Ann Johnson, but she was nicknamed “Maya” by her older brother. Over the course of her life, Angelou had many jobs ranging from a fry cook to a sex worker. She broke through as both an author and poet with her publication of her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969. (Wikipedia.com) From that point on, Maya Angelou would become a very prominent figure in American literature.

Some oppositions Maya Lin faced was with the secretary James Watt did not like her plan and wanted changes. Watts raised money to get a statue and he wanted to have it front in center. Maya Lin didn’t want that because she felt like it was going to take away from the memorial, she wanted something quiet and peaceful.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall is made of Black Granite. The design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was a contest. Within the contest different U.S citizen submitted design ideas for the memorial and 8 different artists judges the entries in order to pick the best one. The wall was created by Maya Ying Lin. The wall is not extremely tall but rather is longer than most normal monuments. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall invites those visiting it to come closer and in contact with it. This is due to the fact that the print on the wall is small and visitors can also do a rubbing or tracing of the different names on the wall. The Vietnam Memorial Wall was an intentional monument since it was planned out and designed with a purpose of commemorating

The heritage of Maya Lin seldom finds its reflection in her works. However, the 10 Degrees North interior had shown all the ancestral roots of the architect. The creation of it takes place during 1993-1997 at the Rockefeller Foundation’s headquarters in the New York City. In China, the "measure of all things" is not a human; it is nature, which is infinite, and therefore unknowable. The perspective of 10 Degrees North serves as the centerpiece of granite, wood, and bamboo. As Maya Lin states, she likes it when there is the minimum of things in the interior, so there is the place for showing the character of each piece of architecture. The interior of the Rockefeller Foundation’s headquarters is the environmental installation of bamboo walls

The location of a monument is an important factor that should be considered when building the monument. Maya Lin, designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., said that “The two walls were positioned so that one pointed to the Lincoln Memorial and the other pointed to the Washington Monument” (Lin). The two walls essentially link the two symbols for the county to create unity between the past and present (Lin). By specifically

The Korean War Veterans Memorial is a monument that stood out the most to me while visiting Washington D.C with my fellow nursing students. Residing on the National Mall, southeast of the Lincoln Memorial and south of the Reflecting Pool, the Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated to the 5.8 million Americans that served and sacrificed in the Korean War. During its relatively short duration from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953, 36,374 Americans died in battle at the Korean War theater. In addition, 103, 284 were wounded during the conflict. The Korean War is noted as one of the most hard fought battle in our history. The U.S Congress approved the construction of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in 1985. It then broke ground on June 14, 1992 and on July 27,1995, The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated. Cooper-Lecky Architects were responsible for the design of the memorial, as they oversaw collaboration between several designers. The most notable of these designers was Frank Gaylord, who is known for being responsible of the 19 stainless steel statues one can see in the park at any time of day.

In Mary McLeod's essay, “The Battle for the Monument: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial”, McLeod establishes the importance of participation both during the competition and after being completed because it ultimately defined the design and function of Maya Lin's design. Right from the start, the VVM competition encouraged participation from the public. For example, the competition itself was open to anyone despite their level of experience. This led to a resounding success in terms of the number of entrants.

While attending Yale University she entered a grueling art competition amid 1500 fellow artists, and won, at the young age of twenty-one. The contest was to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, in Washington,D.C. She did extensive research for the wall on subjects ranging from cultural memorials through out history to soldiers journals from World War I. The completion of the wall turned out to be her breaking moment in the world of art.

After reading the article, I am now a fan of William Zinsser’s writing. He provided just the right amount of historical context, quotations, and descriptions to allow me to understand Maya Lin’s monument. What I appreciated most about the article was that Zinsser kept the document brief and did not ramble on about any one aspect of the monument. Zinsser’s organization, I believe, was the strongest aspect of this article. By starting the article in first person, Zinsser made his writing personal, and I felt he gained a sense of credibility.

The ancient Maya were a group of American Indian peoples who lived in Southern Mexico. Their descendants, the modern Maya,live in the same regions today.