Summary

When Guy was sixteen, Maya began singing in the Cosmos Alley nightclub in Los Angeles where she met the famous poet named Langston Hughes and novelist John Killen. She told them she wanted to be a poet. Killen suggested that she come to New York to find out if she really was a writer. Since Guy was a teenager, they could move to New York and she could give it a try. Vivian had new plans, too. She was going to become a sea woman because the seaman’s union wouldn’t let women join and she was sure they wouldn’t want a black woman. She was going to push the envelope.

Maya wanted to see her mother before she left for New York, so they met in Fresno at a newly integrated hotel. Vivian wouldn’t let Maya carry her bags...