Maya Angelou Influences

There are many influential poets that deserve to be heard. Maya Angelou was a poet, influential speaker, and a writer. Angelou was one of the most influential African-American women of all time. She published books, poems, and screenplays that were later filmed. Due to all these accomplishments, she was honored with a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award, five Grammys, the National Medal of Art Award, and finally the Presidential Medal of Freedom (Pettinger). Angelou was most known for her poems. She wrote “Still I Rise,” “Phenomenal Woman” and “Caged Bird.” These are three of Angelou’s most outstanding poems. These poems were inspired by her life experiences, such as her experience with racism, inequality and sexism.

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.

Her poems speak about the turmoil our world is in. She encourages us to love, love, and love. (Source card #4)      In her poem "Human Family", Angelou says, "We are more alike, my friends, then we are unlike." Maya's poems, which include "Equality" and "These yet to be United States", show the pain of humanity and the ignorance of the world. My favorite poem "Phenomenal Woman" shows what it's like to be a woman now a days. "I think the most impressive thing about Maya Angelou's poetry is that it is purely honest.

Maya Angelou is terrific performer, singer, filmmaker, and civil-rights activist. She is a phenomenal woman, one thing that she does best is writing. She is still living today, I believe her legend will never die. If one would talk to her, he or she would think she has lead a normal, happy life. Her life is blissful now, it was not always perfect. Maya beard enough emotional stress in a time frame that most people do not experience in a lifetime. Her experiences and the lessons learned encouraged her to help others become strong. Maya Angelou is one of the best examples of someone overcoming rape, being mute for several years, and having a child at a young age to achieve success of becoming an accomplished

Maya’s younger years were filled with pain and tragedy. When she was only three years old, her parents separated, moving Maya and her brother into the home of their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. While growing up in this area, Angelou became aware of the discrimination and racism that was prevalent during this time in America. (Hyperlink.com) At the age of eight, Angelou was reinstated into the care of her mother. It was during this time period that Maya was sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend. Shortly after this incident occurred, Angelou became mute and would not speak again for five years. This time period in Maya Angelou’s life would

Maya Angelou was inspirational and helpful to others. She has helped people to look at themselves and other people in different, better ways. Angelou also had a joyful and loving personality. She was very engaged in everything that she did (Hoffert). Along with her outstanding personality and inspiration to others, Angelou was helpful. She helped people from many nations and bridged divides between races. This was such an admirable trait that a residence hall at Wake Forest University was named after Angelou (Kennedy). It has been said by Toni Morrison that she was there when you need it the most. Morrison has a firsthand experience with this because Angelou was the first person not in the family to call when Morrison’s son died (Hoffert).

Maya Angelou is an amazing American author, poet, entertainer, actress, playwright, producer and director, historian and civil rights activist. She is best known for her portrayals of strong African American women.

This is when she met a teacher named Mrs. Bertha Flowers; Flowers helped Angelou find her voice again through teaching her about communication and reading popular literary works aloud (Angelou, Caged Bird 98-101). To protect Maya and Bailey from racial discrimination, their grandmother sent them to live in San Francisco, California, where their mother had been living for some time. In California, Angelou experiences homelessness and her father’s alcoholism, but she has many accomplishments, such as becoming the first African American streetcar conductor in San Francisco and graduating high school (Angelou, Caged Bird 237-245,267-269). Soon after graduating, Angelou gave birth to her son (Angelou, Caged Bird 289-290).

Soon after in 1937 Maya was raped by her mothers boyfriend Mr. Freemen and hen soon sent back to there grandmother. She lived in lots of different places such as Missouri, Arkansas, California, New York and Egypt. Maya Angelou went to George Washington High School and California Labor School.

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.

Maya Angelou has inspired me in more ways than one, and I had to write about her. When Maya speaks people listen. She has this wisdom that only few have, especially when life wasn’t always great. She turned tragedy into triumph, and helped others in doing so. So, Maya has proven too many women, especially black women that you succeed, even if you have had a child in your teen years. She’s proof that with determination nothing is unattainable.

a lot of discrimination was shown toward the blacks of Stamps and that they had to unite in order to beat these unfair obstacles of society. Angelou found nice support in her African-American community in Stamps. She was able to surpass the unjust nature of society with the help of her family that she discovered in her grandmother's sales outlet and also the local church. alongside this family, Angelou" absorbed the unshakable religion and values of traditional African-American family, community, and culture,"(Maya Angelou- Biography: global Renaissance

Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on April 15, 1894, she was one of seven children, and her father died soon after her birth, leaving her mother to take care of her and her siblings. In 1906 her mother and two of her brothers passed away and Bessie and her other siblings were taken care of by their aunt. It was after this that Smith began

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

Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4th, 1928 and died May 28th, 2014. She was originally named Marguerite Johnson but she later changed it when she became a performer. I chose her because I liked her poetry as she reflects lots of the experiences she has been through in her life. Poet context Angelou had a really tough childhood and achieved many great things throughout her life.