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Maya Angelou Accomplishments

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The Overcomer Maya Angelou is well known around the world for her stupendous writing and the multiple hardships she has overcome. Although Maya Angelou made many impacts in her lifetime, she continues to impact the lives of society today. She gave life to everything she ever wrote or performed. Angelou had an interesting life, an abundant amount of works, numerous awards, and an exquisite writing style. To begin with, Angelou had an interesting life because of her education, previous jobs, and family. Maya Angelou was born into a life of segregation. This would make one think that she had little to no education, but it was quite the opposite for her. Angelou went to high school at George Washington High in San Francisco, and later went to the California Labor School after winning a scholarship to study dance and acting (Angelou, Maya p.5). Before establishing herself as a writer, Angelou worked as a nightclub entertainer, a streetcar director, and a shake dancer (Maya Angelou Biography). When growing up, she had her mom and brother. At a young age, she was sent to live with her maternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, after being raped by her mother’s boyfriend (Borus, Audrey p.108). …show more content…

She had written many books and poems, often being criticized by what she had written. Some of Angelou’s many books are I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die, and Singin’ and Swingin’(Cuffie 8-9). Along with her books, Angelou wrote multiple poems. Her poems were meant to show a context of experiences and character of incidents that gave them meaning (McGeagh 1). Although her works were brilliant, she was still given critical reception. Many people said that Angelou would hardly be known as a poet if she had not become famous for the chronicles of her life. Her poems were also considered thin in substance, lackluster in language, and having a lack in poetic invention (McGeagh

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Some of the awards that she has been nominated for and has even received include: Chubb Fellowship given by Yale University, Coretta Scott King Honor for African-American authors of books for young people, Tony Award Nomination for her role in Broadway play Look Away, Matrix Award given by New York Women in Communication, and many others. Besides creating many inspiring poems Angelou also wrote many books in her time. One of her most known books is a memoir about her childhood called I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

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Rhetorical analysis of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings “I was really white and because a cruel fairy stepmother, who was understandably jealous of my beauty, had turned me into a too-big Negro girl, with nappy black hair, broad feet and a space between her teeth that would hold a number-two pencil” (Angelou 19). Maya Angelou was only a little girl when she realized that she was different than all the other little girls; racism had already affected her life significantly. The times she grew up in and the way society changed around her were some of the reasons she wrote the book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In this book, Angelou talks about how adventures, romance, and adversity changed her through the eyes of her young self.

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III. a. Maya Angelou was an avid writer, speaker, activist and teacher. As a result of the many hardships that she suffered while growing up as a poor black woman in the south she has used her own experiences as the subject matter of her written work. In doing this she effectively shows how she was able to overcome her personal obstacles. Her autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970) tells the story of her life and how she overcame and moved forward triumphantly in spite of her circumstances.

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Maya Angelou was born in Saint Louis Missouri, on April 4, 1928 (Maya Angelou) Among the most popular African-American lady figure, she was well known. She was an American essayist and extraordinary performing artist, and additionally a rousing figure as a writer, who was the component artist at President Bill Clinton's 1993 initiation. The wit,wisdom, and power of Maya Angelou's work have made her one of the most beloved contemporary American writers ( Appiah and Gates). Was an awesome teacher, history specialist, creator, dramatist, chief, and maker.

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388 Words | 2 Pages

This essay will talk about what Maya Angelou went through, and and her impact on society. Maya Angelou was also a poet, storyteller, activist, and autobiographer,

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970 Words | 4 Pages

Maya Angelou, born Marguerite Johnson, lived through an unstable early life. She was born in St. Louis, Arkansas, but moved away to Stamps, Arkansas at age three due to her parents’ divorce. There, Angelou lived with her brother, Bailey, and her paternal grandmother (Galenet - Self and a Song of Freedom in the Southern Tradition). As discussed in her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, seven-year old Maya was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. The man was consequently murdered by her uncles, and Maya, feeling responsible for his death, ceased talking and remained speechless for five years.

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Having to grow up with her grandma rather than a mother or father had its difficulties, but nonetheless, Angelou prevailed. She was born April 4, 1928 in Saint Louis, Missouri.

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Once she retired to the United States, she was encouraged by her friend and fellow writer James Baldwin to write about her life experiences. This led to her gaining enormous success from her 1969 memoir about her childhood and young adult life, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. It made literary history by being the first nonfiction bestseller by a black woman which lead to Angelou becoming an international

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Maya Angelou was a strong African-American women who made an influential impact on the Civil Rights Movement, in bother her actions, and her literature. Her life experiences and courage helped others, and made her work influential. During Maya’s early life, she experienced many hardships that shaped her into the person many remember her as. Born on April 4, 1928, she only lived in St. Louis, MO for three years before her parents got divorced, and Maya, along with her mother and brother, moved in with her grandparents in Arkansas. At the age of eight, raped by her mother’s boyfriend, Maya learned the power that words possess.

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Her first work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was an autobiography focused on her early years of life. It proved to be a huge sensation, as it became the first non-fiction bestseller by an African American woman. Angelou had been writing poetry even before her novels became well known, and it’s received praise from many for discussing sensitive subjects and important political and social issues. Another high point of her career was when she recited her poem On the Pulse of the Morning at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton

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She was a spokesperson for the blacks and women and for other people who were committed to raising the moral standards of living in the U.S (poetryfoundation.org). Maya Angelou was a black woman who overcame many things in her life growing up. She overcame racist people, and many mean people during her life. She overcame all those and became Hollywood’s first famous black woman. She was famous for her books, poems.

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When Maya Angelou was a teenager she got a scholarship to a dance and drama school in San Francisco, called George Washington High School. There she studied dance at the California Labor School (Source 3). Later she dropped out of school to become the first African American female cable car conductor (Source 5). She came back to school and got pregnant with a baby boy. After her high school graduation, when she was sixteen years old, she gave

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Maya Angelou is not just another name. Maya Angelou is my notable, and she made a colossal impact on the world and its people, past and present, who inhabit it. Maya did the impossible. She fought through the rough times and made the most out of her life. I chose her because I read some of her quotes and was intrigued.

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1). Angelou’s parents split up when she was very young, so she and her brother Bailey were sent to live with their grandmother (“Maya Angelou Biography” par. 14). Despite having their grandmother, Momma, and Uncle Willie to substitute for their absent parents, Maya Angelou endured a rough childhood in the south full of first hand racial prejudices and discrimination. Not soon after a family member witnessed the lynching of a black man, Angelou was sent to live with her mother in San Francisco, California. She later, “became pregnant [during] her senior year [of high school] and graduated a few weeks before giving birth to her son, Guy.

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Poetry is the art of self expression through “aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language”. Maya Angelou, a women of many artistic and prestigious qualities beyond her years, methodized her poetry to compose a story. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is a production of her life story through the artistic practice of poetry. Angelou’s autobiography is a compendium of life lessons through narratives “… as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself.” Legacies universally remain through the innovate works of, trailblazers, leaders formed through the many struggles and successes faced throughout life.

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