Maya Angelou (born 1928)--author, poet, playwright, stage and screen performer, and director--is best known for her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), which recalls a young African American woman's discovery of her self-confidence....

Maya Angelou's literary significance rests primarily upon her exceptional ability to tell her life story as both a human being and a black American woman in the twentieth century. Five serial autobiographical volumes have been published to date (in...

Maya Angelou's literary significance rests upon her exceptional ability to tell her life story as both a human being and a black American woman in the twentieth century. Four serial autobiographical volumes have been published to date (in 1970, 1974,...

American author Maya Angelou is known for her poetry, autobiography, and novels that lyrically articulate the experience of Africans Americans and give a voice to black pride and heritage. Angelou's works, however, have appealed to all races...

Hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary African American literature, Angelou is best known for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), the first of several autobiographical books. Angelou's literary works have generated critical and...

Born April 4, 1928 St. Louis, Missouri Poet, author, actress,...

Maya Angelou (IPA: /ˈmaɪə ˈændʒəloʊ/[1]), born Marguerite Ann Johnson, April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri,[2] is an American poet, memoirist, actress and an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement. In 2001 she was named one of...

SHE gingerly walks into the room on legs stiff with arthritis, a condition made worse by the chilly dampness of this rainy North Carolina winter morning. Wincing from the pain, yet refusing to acknowledge it, she eases her six-foot frame onto a pastel...

WASHINGTON -- Until yesterday millions of people, probably tens of millions, were unaware of Maya Angelou's compelling poetic power. But, through the years, millions of others have felt their lives enriched and altered by the melody, the sweep and the unforgiving truth of...

Donations to a multifaith retreat center have fallen off since it sheltered a National Guard deserter, and the facility is up for sale, the founder said.Annual contributions to the Peace Abbey dropped from $80,000 to less than $30,000 since 2004, when Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia...

Today is Wednesday, April 4, the 94th day of 2007. There are 271 days left in the year.Today's Highlight in History:On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., 39, was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.On this date:In 1818, Congress decided the...

In the following excerpt, Hagen presents an anatomy of Angelou's poetry and its subject matter.

In the following essay, Ramsey argues that Angelou creates transcendent meaning from oppressive experience in her poetry.

In the following excerpt, Erikson explores Angelou's remarks on Shakespeare, and their implications, challenging how they were employed by Lynne Cheney, Ronald Reagan's director of the National Endowment for the Humanities, in a report about the conflict in academia over determining the scope, nature, and value of the Western Literary Canon.

Maya Angelou's autobiographical essay "Graduation", was about more than just moving on to another grade. Upon reading the story there is an initial feeling of excitement and hope which was quickly tarnished with the abrupt awareness of human prejudices. The author vividly illustrates a rainbow of significant mood changes she undergoes throughout the story.

This essay is about the life and works of Maya Angelou and the effects of her literature.

Provides biographical detail on the life and career of author Maya Angelou. Explores her invovlment in human rights activism. Details her many professional and personal achievements.