Marguerite Johnson

     Gwendolyn Brooks is the female poet who has been most responsive to changes in the black community, particularly in the community’s vision of itself. The first African American to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; she was considered one of America’s most distinguished poets well before the age of fifty. Known for her technical artistry, she has succeeded in forms as disparate as Italian terza rima and the blues. She has been praised for her wisdom and insight into the African Experience in America. Her works reflect both the paradises and the hells of the black people of the world. Her writing is objective, but her characters speak for themselves. Although the

She cascades the words to show feeling, compassion and how much she wanted her to speak up, using words to make a meaning.

In 1924 she went back to live with her mother, traveling and being schooled all over the state until she was fourteen. At the age of fourteen she decided to drop out of school and go to work. Because she was talented and light skinned it was not hard for her to find a job. She became a chorus girl in Harlem’s Cotton

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.

She became a well known dancer and a high paid chorus member. In 1925 she got the chance to tour Europe and especially fell in love with France. In France she encountered a much more accepting atmosphere than the racist atmosphere in St. Louis. Her performances became much more exotic and extravagant. She later chose to live in France and leave the racism of the United States behind.

When she came out to California she became a young adult at the age of 24, and was granted a job at Berkeley College as a teacher assistant in the science, and math department. She was able to find long term friends, and get in touch with her being an activist, strong mother, and a liberal fighter. She got involved with supporting her Black students anyway she could,

Marguerite Annie Johnson, a little girl born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. Her older brother Bailey Jr loved to tease her and end start calling her Maya. Today we know her as Maya Angelou the first black woman director in Hollywood, who left a huge mile stone as poet, historian, songwriter, author, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, singer, performer, director, and civil rights activist. She was also and inspiration to Martin Luther King Jr. who request her present 1968.

The year was 1967. Eileen was 17 years old when she first starting feeling like a grown adult after that horrible morning that involved her mother... and a gun. In 1967 Eileen Johnson was a childish immature selfish girl. She had been that way all her life. But that one day on that super hot morning in August in Kirkland Washington (her childhood home.) She had just finished cleaning the house. She had been cleaning all day. She got up at around 9:00 am and started cleaning everything. She had finished cleaning at around 4:00 pm. She had dinner in the oven and she went to go let her mom know that that it was ready and that she needed to play cards with her. She opened the door to her mom's duty funky smelling old room. She went to the head of the bed because she couldn't see her because a whole bunch of clothes were in the way.

At the age of 16, Maya left home with her son Guy. She supported them by working menial jobs such as waitressing and being a cook. In 1952, Maya married a Greek sailor named Anatasis Angelopules. In her career as a nightclub singer, she used Maya Angelou as her professional name. Even though her marriage was short lived, her performing career was blooming. In 1954-1955, she toured Europe with an opera production for Porgy and Bess. Maya also studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on TV, and recorded her first album “Calypso” in 1957.

She attended three schools through her childhood years. She went to Baymore Christian School for grade school, and then went to Archbishop Mitty High School, and for college she went to Stanford University. As a child she played baseball or tee- ball that was coached by her father. She became an all- star baseball player being the only girl in the league.

Marguerite Johnson, better known as Maya Angelou was born April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She was able to publish seven autobiographies, three books with essays, a number of books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years of her life. Maya Angelou didn’t have the best of lives growing up but she worked hard to get to where she is now.

Dr. Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father, Baily Johnson, was a doorman, and, later a dietician for the navy. Her mother, Vivian Johnson, was a registered nurse. When Angelou was three years old, her parents were divorced. They sent her and her four-year-old brother, Baily, Jr., to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas. Henderson ran a small general store and managed to scrape by. She continued to do so after her grandchildren joined her. Angelou's grandmother was one the many strong who trained her, helped her, and provided her with role models. The people of her church also nurtured her and gave her a sense of belonging to a community. But her

“The monumental collection Blacks suggests that poetry has always resurrected Brooks” (Doreski 72). Gwendolyn Brooks transformed the way people think of black writers in her time as well as today. The recognition of her works has changed the community around her to look at what is written, and not who wrote it. Her poems morphed the standards of authors from not only her period, but also the stage of the present day society as we know it. The approach Gwendolyn Brooks takes in her works of literature are connected to the growth of women and what special matters they go through in those hard moments of life. She tries to explain the hardships of the female lifetime and what their trials may be. From motherhood, to relationships, and even what would sound like the simplest thought of growing old is constructed into actual works of literature. These groundbreaking poems have taken vast steps in the world for the population of

Helene Johnson, another great poet of the period. Her works expressed a new pride in black racial identity and heritage. Johnson's poems typify manta of these themes, and she is best known for her poems celebrating racial pride. Johnson was raised by her mother after his father left the family. She shows this strength and extreme independence in her strong worded poems. They are usually described as bold because of her powerful words and sense of pride for who she is. She fought through the prejudice put against her for her race and gender, but instead of being afraid and accepting what society thought of her, she redefined the role of women through her powerful position in her race and her gender. The racial pride voiced in her work is evident

I remember holding her hands as a child, how delicate and soft they seemed and yet that never made them seem any less worn or sturdy. Her hands told stories of different times, of different worlds and hardships. She had grown up worlds away from me, in a different land, at a different time, in an era and a life that I would never know.