Maya Angelou?

Question

I need help fast, i have nothing on her and it due in two days!

Answer 1

Dr. Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is a famous African-American poet.
Dr. Maya Angelou is a remarkable Renaissance woman who is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. As a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, she continues to travel the world, spreading her legendary wisdom. Within the rhythm of her poetry and elegance of her prose lies Angelou's unique power to help readers of every orientation span the lines of race and Angelou captivates audiences through the vigor and sheer beauty of her words and lyrics.

Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Johnson April 4, 1928[1]) is an American poet, memoirist, actress and an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement.

Angelou is known for the autobiographical writings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). Her volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993, Angelou read her poem On the Pulse of Morning during Bill Clinton's Presidential inauguration. It was only the second time in U.S. history that a poet had been asked to read at an inauguration, the first being Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy.

Besides poetry, Angelou has published collections of verse, and has contributed to periodicals in the United States and abroad. A polyglot, Angelou speaks several languages besides her native English, including French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Ghanian Fante.

Angelou has been honored by numerous academic institutions throughout her career. She has been awarded a fellowship by Yale University, and also served as a Rockefeller Foundation Scholar in Italy. Angelou has taught at the University of Ghana, University of Kansas, and at Wake Forest University, where she holds a lifetime chair as the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of American Studies. For several years Angelou has delivered an opening address to the incoming freshman class of Duke University. Although Angelou has, in her later career, received several honorary doctorates, she never received a college education.

Outside of academica, Angelou has achieved recognition for her poetry from bodies honoring achievement in music and theater. She has received a nomination for the Tony Awards, and in 1993 won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for On the Pulse of Morning. In 2005, Angelou was honored by Oprah Winfrey at her "Legends Ball" along with 25 other African-American women whom Winfrey considered inspirational.
Poems:

I know Why the Cage Birds Sing
A free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange suns rays and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.



Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care.
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Answer 2

Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Johnson April 4, 1928) is an American poet, memoirist, actress and an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement.

Angelou is known for the autobiographical writings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). Her volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993, Angelou read her poem On the Pulse of Morning during Bill Clinton's Presidential inauguration. It was only the second time in U.S. history that a poet had been asked to read at an inauguration, the first being Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy.

Besides poetry, Angelou has published collections of verse, and has contributed to periodicals in the United States and abroad. A polyglot, Angelou speaks several languages besides her native English, including French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Ghanian Fante.

Angelou has been honored by numerous academic institutions throughout her career. She has been awarded a fellowship by Yale University, and also served as a Rockefeller Foundation Scholar in Italy. Angelou has taught at the University of Ghana, University of Kansas, and at Wake Forest University, where she holds a lifetime chair as the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of American Studies. For several years Angelou has delivered an opening address to the incoming freshman class of Duke University. Although Angelou has, in her later career, received several honorary doctorates, she never received a college education.

Outside of academica, Angelou has achieved recognition for her poetry from bodies honoring achievement in music and theater. She has received a nomination for the Tony Awards, and in 1993 won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for On the Pulse of Morning. In 2005, Angelou was honored by Oprah Winfrey at her "Legends Ball" along with 25 other African-American women whom Winfrey considered inspirational.

Answer 3

I wrote a research paper on her in college. She is an excellent topic for a paper. Her poetry is excellent.

Answer 4

Top 3D Animation Program : http://3dAnimationCartoons.com/?pIKh

Answer 5

hope this helps

-Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Johnson April 4, 1928[1]) is an American poet, memoirist, actress and an important figure in the American Civil Rights Movement.

Angelou is known for the autobiographical writings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). Her volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993, Angelou read her poem On the Pulse of Morning during Bill Clinton's Presidential inauguration. It was only the second time in U.S. history that a poet had been asked to read at an inauguration, the first being Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy.

Besides poetry, Angelou has published collections of verse, and has contributed to periodicals in the United States and abroad. A polyglot, Angelou speaks several languages besides her native English, including French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and Ghanian Fante.

Angelou has been honored by numerous academic institutions throughout her career. She has been awarded a fellowship by Yale University, and also served as a Rockefeller Foundation Scholar in Italy. Angelou has taught at the University of Ghana, University of Kansas, and at Wake Forest University, where she holds a lifetime chair as the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of American Studies. For several years Angelou has delivered an opening address to the incoming freshman class of Duke University. Although Angelou has, in her later career, received several honorary doctorates, she never received a college education.

Outside of academica, Angelou has achieved recognition for her poetry from bodies honoring achievement in music and theater. She has received a nomination for the Tony Awards, and in 1993 won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for On the Pulse of Morning. In 2005, Angelou was honored by Oprah Winfrey at her "Legends Ball" along with 25 other African-American women whom Winfrey considered inspirational.Background
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. In 1931, when she was three years old, her parents divorced and she and her 4-year old brother, Bailey, were sent alone, by train, to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. While living with her grandmother, Angelou participated in a wide variety of dance classes including tap, jazz, foxtrot, and salsa. After four years in Stamps, the children returned to their mother's care. At age eight, Angelou confessed that her mother's boyfriend had sexually abused her, and Angelou's uncles beat the man to death. Horrified by the outcome, she became mute, believing, as she has stated, that "the power of [her] words led to someone's death." She remained nearly mute for another five years, at which point her mother sent the children to live with their grandmother once again. Angelou credits a close friend in Stamps, Mrs. Flowers, for helping her "refind her voice". She began to speak again at age 13. During one of her first bouts of activism, Angelou persisted at age 15 in becoming the first black person hired on the San Francisco streetcars.

In 1940, while spending the summer with her father in the Los Angeles area, Angelou was assaulted by her father's live-in girlfriend, which led to her running away from home and spending a month as a resident of a junk yard that housed other homeless children. She finally called her mother and was sent a ticket back home to San Francisco, but her month of homelessness had a profound effect on her way of looking at the world. As she says in p. 254 of Caged Bird, "After a month my thinking processes had so changed that I was hardly recognizable to myself. The unquestioning acceptance of my peers had dislodged the familiar insecurity...After hunting down unbroken bottles and selling them with a white girl from Missouri, a Mexican girl from Los Angeles and a Black girl from Okalahoma, I was never again to sense myself so solidly outside the pale of the human race. The lack of criticism evidenced by our ad hoc community influenced me, and set a tone of tolerance in my life."

Angelou became pregnant at the age of 16 and gave birth to her son, Guy Johnson, who also became a poet later in life. To support herself, she sang, with an affected Caribbean accent, at Enrico Banducci's famed hungry i San Francisco nightclub. During this phase of her career she released a record album on the Liberty Record label entitled 'Miss Calypso.' It has since become a highly sought after collectable among fans of record albums by celebrities.


Works

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Angelou's first work of literature, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is an autobiography. Angelou's disruptive life inspired her to write this book. It reflects the essence of her struggle to the restrictions that were placed upon her in a hostile environment. Angelou wrote with a twist of lyrical imagery along with a touch of realism. The title of this book is taken from the poem "Sympathy" by the great black poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar. The work displays an impulse towards transcendence.


Gather Together in My Name
Gather Together in My Name centers on Angelou and her brother's move away from their grandmother. This transition takes place from her later teen years through her mid twenties, focusing on her experiences as a mother, a Creole cook, a madam, a tap dancer, a prostitute, and a chauffeurette. Also in the novel, Angelou writes about an affair with a customer at a restaurant and her brief experience with drugs.


Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
Angelou's third novel covers about five years of her life from the ages of twenty-two to twenty-seven. During this period she was married to Tosh Angelos, a white man and an ex-sailor, who she shows to be intelligent, kind, and reliable. He was a temporary source of stability for her and her son, but after three years of marriage they fell out of love. She divorced him and returned to her career as a dancer. Shortly afterwards she joined the European touring production of Porgy and Bess. She devotes over half of the book to describing the tour. She talks about how the guilt over her neglect of her son nearly drove her to suicide, but her love of life, motherhood, and dancing sent her running home.


The Heart of a Woman
The title of her fourth novel, The Heart of a Woman, comes from a poem that was written during the Harlem Renaissance by the poet Georgia Douglas Johnson. Once again, in this memoire, Angelou is in search of her identity and place. The book is told from a perspective that matches that of her first novel and has a similar psychological depth. Narrating her thirties, Angelou reflects on her son Guy, the civil rights movement, marriage, and her own writing. During this period, she became more committed to her writing and was inspired by her friend, John Killens, a distinguished social activist author. Also, during that time she made a commitment to promote black civil rights and examine the nature of racial oppression, racial progress and racial integration..


All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
Angelou's fifth autobiography, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, shows her to have developed an even greater sense of connection with her African past. She dedicates this book to Julian Mayfield and Malcolm X, who both were passionately and earnestly in search of their symbolic home. After her visit to Ghana, she was swept into adoration for the country and adopted it as her homeland.

As well as each single book, Maya Angelou now has one book that includes all her autobiographies.


Film and television
Angelou wrote the screenplay and score for the film Georgia, Georgia in 1971; the screenplay was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for Look Away (her debut role), and an Emmy for her role in the 1977 miniseries Roots. In 1976 she directed an episode of the award-winning television anthology series, "Visions." She was the first African-American woman admitted to the Directors Guild of America. In 1998 she directed the feature film, Down in the Delta, starring Alfre Woodard. She was also on the popular children's television show, Sesame Street. She also appeared in Tyler Perry's "Madea's Family Reunion" (2006).

Maya Angelou appeared in 1977 in a brief cameo on The Richard Pryor Special? (a special to showcase Pryor's talents) as the wife of a drunkard, Willie (played by Pryor). The scene had begun humorously in a bar, so viewers expected that, when Willie came home, the laughs would continue. However, when Ms. Angelou greets him at the door, she begins a heart-wrenching monologue that continues as she watches him collapse on the couch into a drunken sleep (the crowd can even be heard laughing as she begins, not expecting the turn it takes). It comments on Willie's deterioration into drunkness and the way in which it (and racial inequity) crushes his spirit. The monologue effectively exposes the truth of the situation, converting Willie's character and antics from humorous to sad, and at the end of the monologue, the audience (which has, by now, become silent) gives her a heartfelt applause.

In 1978, Angelou was host to a 30-episode educational series produced by the Coast Community College District in Southern California in conjunction with the City Colleges of Chicago. The series, titled "Humanities in the Arts", covers broad topics including film, architecture, literature, and poetry. Still used in colleges throughout the United States as a telecourse series, the series offers many opportunities to hear Angelou read various poetry -- including her own -- in her sonorous voice, infusing the poetry with great meaning. [1]

Maya Angelou's name was written into the song "La Vie Boheme" (Jonathan Larson) from the RENT soundtrack, along with a host of other influential people such as Stephen Sondheim, Susan Sontag, Allen Ginsberg, Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Lenny Bruce, Langston Hughes, Uta Hagen, Pablo Neruda, Pee-Wee Herman, Gertrude Stein, Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernardo Bertolucci, Akira Kurosawa, Václav Havel and even Buddha, among others.


Clothes hoax
Starting in March of 1999, a poem called Clothes that eventually came to be attributed to Angelou circulated on the internet. The poem makes a number of false and defamatory claims labeling various clothing manufacturers as racists and members of the KKK. Through a spokesman and on her website, Angelou has denied that she wrote the poem. [2], [3]


Poetry works
A Conceit
Alone
Equality
Massa got me workin
Human Family
Insomniac
Men
Million Man March Poem
Momma Welfare Roll
Cornbread and Watermelon Pie
On the Pulse of Morning
Passing Time
Phenomenal Woman
Refusal
Remembrance
Still I Rise
The Detached
The Lesson
They Went Home
Touched by an Angel
Weekend Glory
When You Come
Woman Work
Kin
True Love
Mother
Life Doesn't frighten me
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
A Song Flung Up To Heaven