Who is Maya Angelou
Ranked #4,474 in Books, Poetry & Writing, #166,412 overall | Donates to Save the Children, Women's Peace Campaign
The Vision of Maya Angelou
Her screenplay, "Georgia, Georgia" (1972), was the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Being a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, Dr. Angelou continues to travel the world making appearances, spreading her legendary wisdom.
Maya Angelou Autobiography
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Amazon Price: $3.28 (as of 05/27/2012)
In this first of five volumes of autobiography, poet Maya Angelou recounts a youth filled with disappointment, frustration, tragedy, and finally hard-won independence. Sent at a young age to live with her grandmother in Arkansas, Angelou learned a great deal from this exceptional woman and the tightly knit black community there. These very lessons carried her throughout the hardships she endured later in life, including a tragic occurrence while visiting her mother in St. Louis and her formative years spent in California--where an unwanted pregnancy changed her life forever. Marvelously told, with Angelou's "gift for language and observation," this "remarkable autobiography by an equally remarkable black woman from Arkansas captures, indelibly, a world of which most Americans are shamefully ignorant."
A Brave and Startling Truth by Maya Angelou
Written for the United Nations 50th Anniversary
"A Brave and Startling Truth"
We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.
Love costs all we are and will ever be.
Yet it is only love which sets us free.
A Brave and Startling Truth.
It is possible and imperative that we discover
A brave and startling truth.
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
And without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonders of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
What do you think of Maya Angelou?
A Letter To My Daughter
Letter to My Daughter
Amazon Price: $5.42 (as of 05/27/2012)
List Price: $25.00
Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou's path to living well and living a life with meaning. Told in her own inimitable style, this book transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight.
Whether she is recalling such lost friends as Coretta Scott King and Ossie Davis, extolling honesty, decrying vulgarity, explaining why becoming a Christian is a lifelong endeavor, or simply singing the praises of a meal of red rice; Maya Angelou writes from the heart to millions of women she considers her extended family.
Like the rest of her remarkable work, Letter to My Daughter entertains and teaches; it is a book to cherish, savor, re-read, and share.
Maya Angelou Videos
Maya Angelou Collectable Works
1
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou by Maya Angelou
For the first time, the complete collection of Maya Angelou's published poems-including "On the Pulse of Morning"-in a permanent collectible, handsome hardcover edition.1 point
2
The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou (Modern Library) by Maya Angelou
Superbly told, with the poet's gift for language and observation, Angelou's autobiography of her childhood in Arkansas - a world of which most Americans are ignorant.1 point
3
Miss Calypso
Maya Angelou is known primarily as a poet, activist and best selling author. She is far less known for her early career as a singer. In 1957, at the age of 27, she made her only sung album to date. "Miss Calypso" consisted of quite respectable calypso songs.0 points
4
ABC News Classics Maya Angelou
Celebrated poet/writer/actress/performer Maya Angelou talks to ABC News about how she used her own life experiences to become an award-winning literary figure and most read black female writer in the world. Maya Angelou grew up in Stamps, Arkansas, living with her grandmother, uncle and brother in the back of their family-owned store. Angelou discusses how during a trip to St. Louis to visit her mother she was raped which led to her to become mute for several years, and how she is still haunted....0 points
5
Miss Calypso
Maya Angelou is known primarily as a poet, activist and best selling author. She is far less known for her early career as a singer. In 1957, at the age of 27, she made her only sung album to date. "Miss Calypso" consisted of quite respectable calypso songs.0 points
The Wisdom and Quotes of Maya Angelou
- All great achievements require time.- We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
- All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.
- Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.
- Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.
- Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.
- Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.
- I believe that every person is born with talent.
- I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
- I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.
- I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
- If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
- It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.
Maya Angelou on Flickr
Maya Angelou Tribute Recordings
Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou
Phenomenal Womenby Maya Angelou
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 in 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.
More Phenomenal Women
Your Thoughts on Maya Angelou?
Share your stories, sightings, thoughts, rants, raves...
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lovelylashes
Apr 17, 2011 @ 12:14 pm | delete
- Maya Angelou is one of my favorite poets. Love this lens. Blessed.
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monarch13
Jun 21, 2011 @ 1:37 am | delete
- Thank You!
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lravidlearner Jan 23, 2011 @ 6:52 am | delete
- You've painted a very expressive portrait of Maya Angelou. Blessed by a Squid Angel ~
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snazzy
Dec 6, 2010 @ 10:34 pm | delete
- I have read various quotes of hers but didn't know anything about her. Very interesting lens, thank you.
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OhMe Dec 6, 2009 @ 5:05 am | delete
- Back to this great lens to lensroll to my lens about the book Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia by Patricia Neely Dorsey. Also leaving you with a Squid Angel Blessing.
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Kristina Phinnda Kandakai
Sep 26, 2009 @ 10:03 pm | delete
- I am flabbergasted by Maya everytime.she is one of the reasons Idogsnog keep going and striving to make my mark while I am still Breathing Air.Great quotes.
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Kristina Phinnda Kandakai
Sep 26, 2009 @ 10:03 pm | delete
- I am flabbergasted by Maya everytime.she is one of the reasons Idogsnog keep going and striving to make my mark while I am still Breathing Air.Great quotes.
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worldbuilder
Jul 29, 2009 @ 9:54 am | delete
- Maya Angelou is one of my she-roes! Very nice job you've done here. HI 5! and I've included your lens in my Maya lens. She does inspire, doesn't she?
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KimGiancaterino Jul 27, 2009 @ 3:38 pm | delete
- You've been blessed by a Squid Angel, and this lens was included in Another Day of One Hundred Squid Angel Blessings.
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May 28, 2009 @ 11:42 am | delete
- A lot of love went into this lens! Thank you for the inspiration.
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by monarch13
- I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.~ Maya Angelou
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