Maya Angelou (1928- ) an American Author Who Has Made An

Maya Angelou (1928- )

An American author who has made an everlasting mark on the world with her ﬁve volumes of autobiographies and her collections of poems. To further reinforce the messages of her memoirs, Ms. Angelou travels the globe, speaking to people of all ages about her life struggles and triumphs... inspiring others to persevere toward their goals and dreams with strength and pride.

San Francisco:

At the age of thirteen, Maya and her brother, Bailey, moved to San Francisco to live with their mother.

"The air of collective displacement, the impertinence of life in wartime and the gauche personalities of the more recent arrivals tended to dissipate my own sense of not belonging. In San Francisco for the ﬁrst time, I perceived myself as part of something."

"Bailey was the greatest person in my world. And the fact that he was my brother, my only brother, and I had no sisters to share him with, was such a good fortune that it made me want to live a Christian life just to show God that I was grateful."

"When I look at them [her family], I'm flooded with gratitude, and with the responsibility myself to be a rainbow. I think we need to tell the children - look in the family, look in the group first, look in the church first, look in the temple - look for someone who will encourage them to be more like themselves."

Maya Angelou quoted in "Maya Angelou's Rainbows" by Lori Rohlk, Editor, Women's Web Magazine. July 1996 Rainbows:

Maya Angelou calls the individuals that help inﬂuence us and shape our lives "rainbows"... very similar to the stars in these constellations.

"I'm so amazed, and it is so true, that each of us has a rainbow - some have four or ﬁve. This is what men and women who are convinced that they are in unity with themselves and the God that made us are. This is who we are when we are at our best - we are RAINBOWS."

Maya Angelou quoted in "Maya Angelou's Rainbows" by Lori Rohlk, Editor, Women's Web Magazine. July 1996. Momma (Maya's grandmother, Annie Henderson):

Maya Angelou was raised by her grandmother in Stamps, AK from age three to age thirteen.

"Momma intended to teach Bailey and me to use the paths in life that she and her generation and all the Negroes gone before had found, and found to be safe ones."

"George Washington High School was the ﬁrst real school I attended. My entire stay there might have been lost if it hadn't been for the unique personality of a brilliant teacher. Miss Kerwin was that rare educator who was in love with information. I will always believe that her love of teaching came not so much from her liking for students but from her desire to make sure that some of the things she knew would ﬁne repositories so that they could be shared again."

During her teenage years, Maya Angelou found her self temporarily living in a junkyard with a community of homeless teens.

"Odd that the homeless children, the stilt of war frenzy, could initiate me into the brotherhood of man. 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 Oklahoma, 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 for my life."

At the age of eight Maya Angelou retreated into a world of silence... the result of a traumatic experience that occurred while living with her mother for a short time in St. Louis. After returning to live with her grandmother in Stamps, a neighbor, Mrs. Flowers, befriended Maya. "I was liked, and what a difference it made. I was respected not as Mrs. Henderson's grandchild or Bailey's sister but for just being Marguerites Johnson..." (p. 46)I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou. Copyright 1969, by Maya Angelou.

"... she had given me her secret word which called forth a djinn* who was to server me all my life: books."

(p. 195) Ibid

*According to Webster's II, "djinn" is a variation of the word "jinn"... which means: Determination:

Maya Angelou's early life challenges and influences helped her become the determined, powerful woman she is today. One of her first triumphs of early adulthood was becoming the first black individual to ever work as a streetcar conductor in San Francisco... a goal many people doubted she'd reach.

"During these years [age three - age thirteen] in Stamps, I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare. He was my ﬁrst love. Although I enjoyed and respected Kipling, Poe, Butler, Thackery and Henley, I saved my young and loyal passion for Paul Lawrence, Dunbar, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. DuBois' 'Litany at Atlanta'. But it was Shakespeare who said, "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes." It was a state with which I felt myself most familiar."

(p. 14)I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou. Copyright 1969, by Maya Angelou. The above constellation represents only a handful of people, events, and experiences that influenced or had an impact Ms. Angelou in her early years. Much of the information in this particular "Maya Angelou" constellation was obtained from volume one of her autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Please read all five volumes of her autobiography to fully comprehend and appreciate the influences that have shaped this gifted author.