Maya Angelou Motherhood

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

and eventually Boy cheated on her. As the neglect grew, so did his guilt. When

Maya was born on April 4,1928, in St. Louis, Mo and she was raised there as well.

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 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.

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 race war between whites and blacks has blighted American history since colonial times. In her essay “Graduation,” Maya Angelou recollects the experience of her eighth grade graduation in the 1930s to examine the personal growth of humans caught in the adversity of racial discrimination. Through narrative structure, selection of detail, and use of imagery, Angelou encourages young blacks to follow their ambitions with pride, despite what the “white man” thinks of them.

“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.

America tends to justify any leader that holds a leadership position. However, a leader should be defined by the characteristics they possess. Maya Angelou is the epitome of allowing her character to speak for her. Angelou was born on April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Furthermore, she was sent to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with her grandmother, who was the owner of a general store.

Maya reached her breaking point. Her dad was deployed in Syria; her mom was unresponsive most of the time from all of the alcohol she drank to numb the continuous stress she felt worrying about whether or not she would get a phone call notifying her of her husband's death. Her best-friend turned on her for the popular girls at school and her grades were starting to slip. The only thing that kept her sane was drawing. When she drew, she felt free. She felt as if nothing in the world mattered except her colored pencils and sketch book. One misty, eerie night Maya drew herself in great detail. She started with her silky, straight, brown hair that fell a few inches below her shoulders. She then went on to her facial structure. Her defined jawline connected at her chin to make a vague point. Her eyebrows were thin and well-kept, and her nose was as petite as a Boston Terrier. Her lips were small, but plump and resembled the pink hue of the sky at sunset. She took the most time on her deep blue eyes, capturing all of the pain she was feeling for so long. Maya finished her drawing by coloring and shading all of it in making her face look as soft as an airbrush painting. It was her

Maya Angelou’s poetry occupies a very special position in her development as a writer (Chow 1). As a child, Angelou went through five years of complete silence after she was raped at the age of seven years old, by a man named, Mr. Freeman. As a result of telling about her traumatic experience, her uncle’s literally kicked the man that raped her to death. Beings she spoke of her traumatic experience and the result of the man dying, she then imagined that her voice had the potential to kill. Thanks to her teacher, Bertha Flowers, at school Angelou started writing poetry as a means of expression of her life events through her poetry (Chow 1). Poetry thus played an essential part in the recovery of her voice, which in

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.

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.

Stephen Butterfield, a critic of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sing by Maya Angelou, encompasses the gravity of motherhood and the impact it holds on a child through a single statement: "Continuity is achieved by the contact of mother and child, the sense of life begetting life that happens automatically in spite of all confusion—perhaps also because of it" (213). Marguerite Johnson, the protagonist in Angelou’s literary autobiography, experiences a consistent yet changing motherly connection—with her mother, Vivian Baxter, both of her grandmothers, and Bertha Flowers, an aristocrat in Stamps, Arkansas; these relations contribute to Marguerites development of self-confidence and self-awareness in the early stages of her life. Through these relations

In the accounts of Maya Angelou and Mah’Ria Pruitt-Martin, similarities arise as each girl encounters a battle to gain her education amidst deterring circumstances. Angelou’s educational battle can be seen in her essay “Graduation,” in which she recounts her eighth-grade graduation in the 1930s and her new found awareness of racial prejudice. The story of Pruitt-Martin, a black girl who experienced integration in the 2010s, was brought to public attention through the work of a reporter named Nikole Hannah Jones. Jones’ work was broadcasted through a podcast series called This American Life in which she participated in an interview process. Pruitt-Martin’s integration experience occurred after the Normandy school district, a predominantly black