Unfolding Maya
Angelou’s Poetry, Life,
and her Road to Fame
 By CIO Women Magazine
Maya Angelou was one of America’s dearest writers, yet her influence wasn’t
limited to just writing. Maya was a storyteller, activist, and autobiographer. She
made an extensive career as a singer, composer, dancer, actress, and director. But
interestingly enough, it was her poetry work that gained her immense popularity
around the globe. Maya Angelous Poetry career includes gems such as Still I Rise,
Phenomenal Women, Caged Bird, On the Pulse of Morning, and more. In addition
to that, Maya Angelou’s Poetry can also be seen in the 1993 film Poetic Justice.

Throughout her life, Maya recited her poetry before glorious crowds. To get into
more detail, Maya Angelous Poetry revolved around African-American oral
traditions such as slave and work songs, where she also underlined hardship,
oppression, and loss suffered by the people and their personal responses. On top of
analyzing personal experiences, Maya Angelou’s poetry shed light on issues
surrounding race and sex on a much bigger social and psychological level.
In this blog, you will learn more about Maya Angelous Poetry, the difficult times
she faced, and how she rose through fame despite the challenges to become one of
the most adored writers in America.
Life before and toward Fame
Marguerite Annie Johnson was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, to
Bailey Johnson, a doorman and naval dietician, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a
nurse and card dealer. Marguerite Angelou’s elder brother, Bailey Jr., gave her the
moniker “Maya,” which comes from the words “My” or “Mya Sister.” The
“catastrophic marriage” of Angelou’s parents dissolved when she was three and
her brother was four.
Later, their father sent them to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie
Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas, alone by train. Annie Henderson was Angelou’s
mother’s mother. Because the general store that she owned sold necessary basic
commodities and because she made wise and honest investments, Maya Angelou’s
grandmother was able to achieve financial success during the Great Depression and
World War II. This represents an astonishing exception to the harsh economic
conditions that African Americans faced during this time period.
After another four years, when Maya Angelou was seven years old, the children’s
father “came to Stamps without warning” and handed them back over to the care of
their mother in St. Louis. Angelou was subjected to sexual assault and rape at the
age of eight by a guy called Freeman, who was her mother’s lover at the time.
Angelou was living with her mother at the time. She shared the news with her
brother, who then shared it with the rest of their family.
Freeman was found guilty but only received a 24-hour sentence for his crime. He
was killed only four days after being let free, most likely at the hands of Angelou’s
relatives. After stating that she “thought, my voice killed him; I murdered that guy,
because I uttered his name,” Angelou stayed silent for over five years out of the
belief that she was responsible for his death. After that, she feared that her voice
would be so terrifying that no one would ever want to hear it again.

Angelou is said to have acquired her amazing memory, her passion for books and
literature, as well as her capacity to listen and study the world around her, during
this time of stillness, as stated by Marcia Ann Gillespie and her colleagues, who
produced a biography of Angelou. Angelou and her brother were both taken back
to live with their grandmother not long after the murder of Freeman when Angelou
was just eight years old. She received her education at Rosenwald School while
attending the Lafayette County Training School in Stamps.
Mrs. Bertha Flowers, an educator who was also a family friend, is credited by
Maya Angelou as being the one who encouraged her to start speaking again by
issuing the challenge, “You do not love poetry, not until you express it.” Flowers
was the one who exposed Maya to influential writers such as Charles Dickens,
William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and James
Weldon Johnson. Flowers also introduced her to Black female painters such as
Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset.
Angelou moved back in with her mother in Oakland, California, when she was
fourteen years old. At the same time, Angelou and her brother moved back in with
their mother. Angelou was a student at the California Labor School back when
World War II was going on. At the age of sixteen, she made history in San
Francisco by becoming the city’s first Black female streetcar conductor. She had a
strong desire to work there and liked the attire that the operators wore.

In fact, her mother thought so highly of it that she called it her “dream job.” Her
mother urged her to apply for the job, but she also cautioned her that she would
have to come early and put in more effort than the other candidates. As part of a
session that was advertised as “Women Who Move the Nation” in 2014, Maya
Angelou was presented with a lifetime achievement award from the Conference of
Minority Transportation Officials.
At the age of seventeen, she gave birth to her first child, a boy named Clyde (who
would eventually go by the name Guy Johnson), three weeks after she graduated
from high school.
Spotlighting Maya Angelous Poetry and Career
Along with Maya Angelous Poetry, she is also credited with writing a list of plays,
movies, and television series that spans over 50 years. She authored seven
autobiographies, three volumes of essays, and many poetry books. As we all
know, Maya Angelous Poetry books need no introduction.
She was granted almost fifty honorary degrees in addition to dozens of other
prizes. Angelou’s series of seven autobiographies, which center on her childhood
and early adulthood experiences, are the primary source of her widespread fame.
The first, which was published in 1969 and titled I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings, is the one that gained her notoriety and recognition on a global scale. It is a
memoir of her life up until the age of 17, and it details her experiences.
After doing a variety of odd jobs during her early adulthood, she eventually found
success as a poet and writer. These jobs included working as a fry cook, sex
worker, nightclub singer, part of the cast of “Porgy and Bess,” coordinator for the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and reporter in Egypt and Ghana
during the decolonization of African countries. In addition to being an actor, she
was also a writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and programs for public
television.
Her appointment as the inaugural Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake
Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, took place in the year 1982.
She was a committed member of the Civil Rights Movement and collaborated on
projects with both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

She began giving lectures regularly in the 1990s and kept doing so well into her
80s, averaging around 80 appearances per year throughout the course of her career.
Angelou made history when she performed her poem “On the Pulse of Morning”
(1993) during the first inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1993. She was the first poet
to do so since Robert Frost, who did it at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in
1961.
Angelou’s memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was the catalyst for her
opening up about many elements of her private life to the general audience. Her
writings have been seen as an argument in favor of African-American culture, and
she was revered for her role as a voice for Black people and women. Her writings
are taught at schools and institutions all throughout the globe, despite the fact that
there have been moves in certain U.S. libraries to remove her publications off their
shelves.
The works that have brought Angelou the greatest acclaim are those that have been
categorized as autobiographical fiction, yet many critics believe that they are really
autobiographies. She criticized, altered, and extended the boundaries of the
autobiographical genre in an effort to provide a challenge to the conventional
organization of the autobiography. Her works explore a variety of topics, such as
racism, racial identity, family dynamics, and travel.

Angelou’s lengthy and diverse career encompassed not just writing but also
performing, directing, acting, writing scripts for both television and cinema, as
well as writing poetry and plays. Maya Angelous Poetry work was prolific; her
collection ‘Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie’ (1971) was
nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
What’s more, Maya Angelous Poetry “On the Pulse of Morning” was performed in
front of former United States president Bill Clinton, at his inaugural ceremony in
1993. A few other events have been blessed by Maya Angelous Poetry as well. Her
poem A Brave Startling Truth (1995) commemorated the founding of the United
Nations, and Amazing Peace (2005) is a poem she wrote for the White House
Christmas tree-lighting ceremony.
Maya Angelous Poetry style was very direct and conversational. The poetry lured
readers into the world of Maya, as she narrated her stories and revealed secrets. To
be more technical, more often than not you’d see very solid metaphors and similes
in Maya Angelous Poetry.
Maya Angelou’s successful acting career includes appearances in a wide variety of
plays, films, and television shows, one of which being the television miniseries
Roots, in which she appeared in 1977. Her screenplay, Georgia (1972), was the
first original script written by a Black woman to be released, and she was the first
African-American woman to direct a major motion picture, which she did in 1998
with the film down in the Delta.
Badges of Honor
Angelou was selected to be one of the first women honored by the United States
Mint with the release of a whole new series of commemorative quarters, which
was announced in May of 2021.
The script that Maya Angelou wrote for the film Georgia, which was released in
1972, made her the first African American woman to have her work produced.

She was given the Literarian Award, which is essentially an honorary version of
the National Book Award, in recognition of her services to the literary community
in 2013.
Controversial Concerns Surrounding Maya
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed on the same day (April 4) as his friend
Maya Angelou’s birthday. After that, Angelou did not continue her tradition of
celebrating her birthday for many years.
1. The Debate Concerning Birds Kept in Cages
The challenges that Maya Angelou had while living in the South are recounted in
her autobiographical book, titled “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” After its
first publication in 1969, the book has been the subject of widespread praise ever
since 1970 and was ranked number one on the New York Times Best Seller List
for a total of three years. Her book has been a target of censorship for years,
despite the fact that it is a best-seller in spite of the fact that it was ranked as the
ninth most often challenged book in American high schools (Caged Bird Essay).
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has been removed off the shelves of many
public school libraries as a result of the widespread belief among parents that the

book is offensive, has substandard writing, and should not be made available to
students of any age in public schools. Others say that the book ‘I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings’ may do what parents worry about the most: it might bring up
significant topics while giving the young reader little opportunity to figure out how
he or she relates to those concepts.
What exactly do people mean when they say vulgar? The events that occurred to
Angelous as she was growing up are recounted in this narrative, some of them are
gruesome in nature. For instance, when she told how her mother’s lover had
sexually assaulted her when she was eight years old. ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings’ was deemed inappropriate for reading in the high schools in Southlake,
Texas, due to the pornographic portrayal of the victim’s rape.
Other schools have decided not to prohibit the book and instead will just remove
the passages that discuss rape. Although the language used in the scene depicting
Angelous’ rape isn’t quite explicit, it does deal with a delicate subject matter and
elicit a powerful emotional reaction from the audience.
Angelic ideas about homosexuality became another problem, and in any event, a
book that tackles homosexuality is believed to be contentious. Angelic thoughts
about homosexuality became another issue. She is frightened of becoming gay
when she starts puberty since it causes her to become confused about her sexuality.
Angelou did not have a clear understanding of what it meant to be a lesbian; yet,

she thought that her deep voice and male walk persuaded her that she was one, and
later on in life, she came out as a lesbian.
2. Despite the fact that Fidel Castro was in competition with the leaders of the
United States, Angelou supported him.
Maya Angelou once penned the following: “Of course, Castro never had
proclaimed himself white, so he was good to go from the get-go.” In any case, the
United States had a deep-seated hatred for the Russians, and it was common for
black people to say things like “Wasn’t any Communist nation that placed my
grandpa in slavery?” There wasn’t any Communist who murdered my grandfather
or sexually assaulted my mother.'” Her opinion was in line with Pan-Africanism
and anti-colonial attitudes, which hold that people of color, in particular those
living in the African Diaspora, see the battles they face as being a part of a bigger,
overarching battle.
The Path Leading Up to Fame
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which was published for the first time in 1969
and has since received widespread praise from both readers and critics, is the first
of a series of autobiographies written by Angelou that tell the tale of her life.
Angelou is arguably best known for her books. Readers’ perspectives on
autobiography and memoir were fundamentally altered as a result of the
publication of this book, which is still held in high esteem as a remarkable and
unique piece of art.
Through her writing, Maya Angelou provided a voice not only to her own
challenges but also to those of others, particularly other Black women, who had
been through comparable situations but had never previously heard their tales
conveyed with such candor in any other medium.
At the beginning of the 1990s, one of the things that contributed to Maya
Angelou’s reputation was an offer from President Bill Clinton to compose and
perform an inaugural poem. She began “A Rock, a River, a Tree” by reading “On
the Pulse of Morning,” which is a cry for peace, racial and religious harmony, and
social justice for individuals of diverse origins, incomes, genders, and sexual
orientations. Americans from all across the nation watched as she recited this
poem.
It calls on the United States of America to “Give birth anew / To the Dream” of
equality, bringing to mind the civil rights struggle as well as the iconic “I have a
dream” address given by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Here, on the pulse of this

new day, you may have the grace to look up and out / And into your sister’s eyes,
and into / Your brother’s face, your country /And say simply / Very simply / With
hope—Good morning,” Angelou challenged the new administration and all
Americans to work together toward progress.
Leaving a Legacy
Just like most people, Maya Angelou lived a life full of joys and sorrows. What
made her life special though was, despite life’s challenges, she stood firm. Moving
forward, she built herself a rewarding career filled with awards, honors, and most
importantly love and adoration of people. Maya Angelous Poetry, films, writings,
and other work will live on forever in the hearts of her admirers around the globe.