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Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou. Laura DeMerchant. Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou, originally known as Marguerite Ann Johnson, is an 82 year old African American woman. She was born on April 4 th 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. At a young age she was raped. She was mute for five years.

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Maya Angelou

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  1. Maya Angelou Laura DeMerchant

  2. Maya Angelou • Maya Angelou, originally known as Marguerite Ann Johnson, is an 82 year old African American woman. • She was born on April 4th 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. • At a young age she was raped. • She was mute for five years. • Read a lot of books. • She struggled against the odds of being black at a time when prejudice was at its height.

  3. Maya Angelou • She dropped out of high school and became the first African American female cable car conductor. • Went back to high school to graduate. • Gave birth to her son Guy when she was seventeen. Worked as a waitress and cook. • When her grandmother died grief hit her hard and inspired her with manifest. • Won a scholarship to study drama and dance. • In 1957 she recorded her first album Calypso Lady.

  4. Maya Angelou • She traveled around Africa writing, editing and teaching as a result, she became fluent in French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic and Fanti, a West African language. • In 1993 she wrote and recited a poem at the presidential inaugural ceremony for Bill Clinton—a performance for which she won a Grammy for Best Non-Musical Album. • She is a Tony-nominated actress. • Today she has written over 20 books.

  5. Maya Angelou as an actress.

  6. 1993 presidential inaugural ceremony for Bill Clinton On the Pulse of Morning.

  7. We Had Him Poem for Michael Jackson • Beloveds, now we know that we know nothingNow that our bright and shining star can slip away from our fingertips like a puff of summer windWithout notice, our dear love can escape our doting embraceSing our songs among the stars and and walk our dances across the face of the moon In the instant we learn that Michael is gone we know nothingNo clocks can tell our time and no oceans can rush our tidesWith the abrupt absence of our treasure Though we our many, each of us is achingly alonePiercingly aloneOnly when we confess our confusion can we remember that he was a gift to us and we did have him He came to us from the Creator, trailing creativity in abundanceDespite the anguish of life he was sheathed in mother love and family love and survived and did not more than that He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and styleWe had himWhether we knew who he was or did not know, he was our's and we were hisWe had him Beautiful, delighting our eyesHe raked his hat slant over his brow and took a pose on his toes for all of us and we laughed and stomped our feet for him We were enchanted with his passion because he held nothingHe gave us all he had been givenToday in Tokyo, beneath the Eiffel Tower, in Ghana's Blackstar Square, in Johannesburg, in Pittsburgh, in Birmingham, Alabama and Birmingham England, we are missing Michael JacksonBut we do know that we had himAnd we are the world.

  8. Touched by an AngelMaya Angelou • We, unaccustomed to courageexiles from delightlive coiled in shells of lonelinessuntil love leaves its high holy templeand comes into our sightto liberate us into life.Love arrivesand in its train come ecstasiesold memories of pleasureancient histories of pain.Yet if we are bold,love strikes away the chains of fearfrom our souls.We are weaned from our timidityIn the flush of love's lightwe dare be braveAnd suddenly we seethat love costs all we areand will ever be.Yet it is only lovewhich sets us free

  9. You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,You may trod me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I'll rise.Does my sassiness upset you?Why are you beset with gloom?'Cause I walk like I've got oil wellsPumping in my living room.Just like moons and like suns,With the certainty of tides,Just like hopes springing high,Still I'll rise.Did you want to see me broken?Bowed head and lowered eyes?Shoulders falling down like teardrops.Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you?Don't you take it awful hard'Cause I laugh like I've got gold minesDiggin' in my own back yard.You may shoot me with your words,You may cut me with your eyes,You may kill me with your hatefulness,But still, like air, I'll rise.Does my sexiness upset you?Does it come as a surpriseThat I dance like I've got diamondsAt the meeting of my thighs?I rise. Still I Rise

  10. Angelou Reading Out of the huts of history's shameI riseUp from a past that's rooted in painI riseI'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.Leaving behind nights of terror and fearI riseInto a daybreak that's miraculously clearI riseBringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,I am the hope and the dream of the slave.I riseI riseI rise.

  11. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings • A free bird leaps on the backOf the wind and floats downstream Till the current ends and dips his wing In the orange suns raysAnd dares to claim the sky.But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cageCan seldom see through his bars of rageHis wings are clipped and his feet are tiedSo he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird sings with a fearful trillOf things unknown but longed for stillAnd his tune is heard on the distant hill forThe caged bird sings of freedom.The free bird thinks of another breezeAnd the trade winds soft throughThe sighing treesAnd the fat worms waiting on a dawn-brightLawn and he names the sky his own.But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreamsHis shadow shouts on a nightmare screamHis wings are clipped and his feet are tiedSo he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird sings withA fearful trill of things unknownBut longed for still and hisTune is heard on the distant hillFor the caged bird sings of freedom

  12. Discussion Questions • What do you think that the birds represent in the author's eyes? • What do you think the theme of this poem is? • Why do you think the author used birds as symbols in this poem ?

  13. Analysis • In this poem Angelou emphasizes how black people struggled against the odds of being black at a time when prejudice was at its height. • This whole poem is a metaphor about the separation between the colors of people’s skin in everyday life comparing it to a caged bird. • In the authors eyes I think the caged bird represents the coloured person and the free bird represents a white person. • I interpreted the caged bird as the black race being held back from freedom because of their skin color.

  14. Analysis • Leaped, Floats, Dares and Claim are words used in the first stanza to describe the free bird. • Stalked, Clipped and Tied are used in the second stanza with a negative mood to describe the caged bird. • Irony is used at the end of 2nd stanza when the bird sings. Birds are known to sing when they are happy. • Rhyming is used throughout the poem for neatness. Ex. Trill, Still, Hill. • Stanzas beginning with The caged bird, or The free bird, gives us a feeling of how desperate the bird is to be free.

  15. Bibliography • http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Oprah-Interviews-Maya-Angelou/4 • http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/maya_angelou • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK5WsmoQPZE • http://mayaangelou.com/ • http://www.wm.edu/blogs/studentblogs/adreanne/images/maya-angelou.jpg • http://lboissiere.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/mayaangeloucandid_bw.jpg • http://www.artifice.com/images/sky_with_clouds.jpg

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