Biographical Facts of Maya Angelou - Research Paper Example

Maya Angelou- Biography Table of Contents I. Introduction 4 II. Opinions 5 III. Conclusion 11 Works Cited 12 I. Introduction This paper exploresthe life of Maya Angelou from the perspectives of various opinions about her life and work, by way of getting to a grasp of the woman and poet from those various takes and perspectives. One take or perspective comes from the official Maya Angelou page itself, maintained by the family of the poet. In that page, the biography states that Maya Angelou was born on the 4th of April, 1928, as Marguerite Johnson, in St. Louis, even as she spent her early years in her place of birth and in Arkansas, in Stamps. Her career is characterized by decades of creative work, and the proof of her success partly lies in the more than 50 honorary doctorates that have been heaped on her by academia, attesting to the broad influence that she casts on many different areas of creative work, as poet, as dramatist, as activist for civil rights, as actress and historian, as a maker of films, as a producer, and as a writer of memoirs. She is known too for her groundbreaking work ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, an international bestseller that was released in 1970. This book was controversial when it came out, because of its explicit and stark depiction of her experience with sexual abuse in her early life, to the point of being initially banned from many school systems around the time that it was released. Apart from this, she is likewise known for penning more than thirty other works that topped the bestseller lists, from the 36 different works that she was able to publish. In 1972 she would write and compose the music for the movie Georgia, Georgia, for which she would be nominated for a Pulitzer. Her directorial debut was in 1996., for the movie ‘Down in the Delta’. Apart from all this, she was also a professor at Wake Forest University for two decades and a half, holding the Reynolds professorial chair for American Studies there (Caged Bird Legacy). II. Opinions One perspective on the life and work of Maya Angelou is factual, and is from the biography-focused channel Bio. Her work of poetry, entitled ‘Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die’, was nominated for a Pulitzer in 1971, even as the non-fiction work and memoir ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ was published to international recognition and praise two years prior. In 1993 she recited a poem that she had written on the inaugural of then President Bill Clinton, entitled ‘On the Pulse of the Morning’. She would go on, moreover, to establish friendships with various icons of American cultural wife in her later years, from the widow of Martin Luther King, to Oprah, and to various artists, actors and actresses, and political personalities and personalities in the arts, including President Clinton and President Barack Obama, Cory Booker, Mary Blige, and many others. They would go on to pay tribute to the life and work of the woman, to her personal virtues and attributes that included a massive creativity and courage, when Maya Angelou passed away on the 28th of May, 2014. There is the sense one gets from the Bio coverage of Maya Angelou of an earnest tribute and a positive regard for what Maya Angelou had done and accomplished with her life, without necessarily going into the artistic merits of her most important works themselves. The focus of this perspective or take on the life of Angelou is on establishing facts and making sure that the details of her life are based on the factual evidence gathered from public sources, and easily validated (A&E Television Networks). A similar take on her life, on the other hand, differs in its greater attention to the works of the African American literary icon, including the honorary awards and honors that are related to her life as a poet and writer, as well as a playwright. Chief among these recognitions is the National Book Award Literarian Award, a lifetime award that recognized her overall contributions to literature. She was also given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2010, considered to be the highest honor given by the US government to a civilian. This was preceded by an honor bestowed on her by President Clinton in 2000, which was the National Medal of Arts. Of her work up until the 1970’s, the National Poetry Foundation cited the recognition and praise from the piece ‘Southern Women Writers; The New Generation’ by Carol Neubauer, which recognized the work of Maya Angelou as elevating the moral living codes on which the national discourse on morality and ethics was based for all of America. This take on the life of Angelou also explored the roots of her love affair of language, and traced it back to her early experiences of first being raped at age 7, then becoming silent up until the age of 12, and then learning to love the written word through her love of the works of such looming literary influences as du Bois, Langston Hughes, Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, and Shakespeare, among others. By the time she had graduated from eighth grade, she had evolved her relationship with the written word to such an extent that she would later immortalize her most early important literary mentor, her eighth grade teacher Mrs. Flowers, in the book for children entitled ‘Mrs. Flowers: A Moment of Friendship’, which came out in 1986. We find out from this take on her life too that the classic ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ would be followed by five other autobiographies: “Gather Together in My Name’ which came out in 1974, and which takes off from her early years as a mother at the tender age of 17; ‘Singin and Swingin and Gettin Merry Like Christmas’; ‘Porgy and Bess: The Heart of a Woman; which came out in 1981, and which details the life of Angelou as a writer and actress in the Big Apple; the 1986 autobiography ‘All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes’, which covers her time in West Africa and her return to the United States sans her son; and the 2002 work ‘A Song Flung up to Heaven’, which covers the time of her travel to Ghana in 1964 all the way to the time of her writing of the seminal book ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’. Meanwhile, the 1990’s was a time when Angelou would write books for children, among them ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’ which came out in 1993; ‘Kofi and His Magic’ which came out in 1996; and ‘My Friendly Chicken and Me’, which came out in 1994. Among her books of poetry meanwhile are ‘Phenomenal Woman which came out in 1995 and The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou’ which came out in 1994. His poem ‘A Brave Startling Truth’ in 1995 is remembered for commemorating the United Nations’ founding. This take on her life and work is still factual, but is earnestly focused on her individual literary works, as can be seen from the above detailed discussion. The sense one gets from this coverage of the works of Angelou is again one of an opinion of high respect for the impact and importance of her literary work (Poetry Foundation). Another key poet site, by the Academy of American Poets, is more terse in its coverage of Angelou, but likewise focused on her literary output with implicit high praise. We see from a sampling of the American poetry and literary establishment, and from the academic praise and recognition from government and leading global institutions of peace, that the opinion of Angelou in the halls of authority, learning and power is very high, that of an icon (Academy of American Poets; Poem Hunter). In Wake Forest University, where she was a full professor for more than two decades, the opinion of Angelou is likewise very high, as evidenced by an exclusive university page dedicated to her honor and memory (Wake Forest University). The Paris Review, an iconic publication of serious literature, honored Angelou while she was alive by featuring her in an interview for ‘The Art of Fiction’ series, a series which features the most iconic writers on the planet, including winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature and other major literary prizes from around the world. As such, The Paris Review establishes the standing of Angelou as likewise among the giants of world literature, a praise that reflects the high opinion accorded to the artist for her lifetime’s worth of writing. In the interview the respect given by the interviewer is reflected in the probity and intelligence of the questions and answers process, and the way the interviewer earnestly asked Angelou about her thoughts on the works of other writers such as Faulkner, writing about the African American experience. It is important to note too that this recognition and high opinion of an iconic publication came in 1990, before Angelou was tagged to recite a poem for the Clinton presidential inaugural, which established her more mainstream fame (Plimpton). Going to mainstream media, the official opinions of mainstream publications such as CNN is one of high praise and respect as well, as evidenced by the extensive coverage of her passing and the coverage of her life by way of tribute immediately after her passing. CNN sums up her impact as one that is global, and of her literary talents being recognized and respected on a worldwide scale. Moreover, while the previous opinions focused on her objective literary achievements, the coverage of CNN includes not just her literary work bu also her humanitarian work and her work in pushing for such landmark causes as education, race relations and equality, and justice. It is true that this coverage included random negative opinions from former students for instance, but these are few and far between, and the negative opinions moreover have to do with her fiery personality that can sometimes rub people the wrong way (Leopold et al.). Elsewhere we get the high opinion of Oprah of Angelou, who considers the poet her mentor. This opinion is mentioned as an aside in the positive coverage of a posthumous music album by Angelou, which is mentioned in the same breath as a new release from Paul McCartney, signifying her iconic status and the high regard of Angelou in the mainstream press (Amorosi). Angelou’s posthumous album is also respectfully reviewed and endorsed by Rolling Stone in a feature article that prominently displays her photo during her prime years, coverage similar to what the magazine gives to icons such as Bob Dylan and other greats (Murray). In Slate a small anecdote attributed to her is treated as an article unto itself, and prominently displayed (Shetty). In Billboard Magazine on the other hand her prose is reverently referred to in a review of her posthumous album, mixed with hip hop, and produced as an important project by Oprah. All these positive coverage of Angelou point to the secure iconic spot of Angelou in the collective minds of Americans from hereon (Mitchell). III. Conclusion From the above survey of institutional and mainstream opinions on Maya Angelou one gets the sense of the achievements of the poet and social activists being solid and well-deserved. Long before she became famous, she was already being held in high regard for instance by first, specialist review publications that covered African American writers, and later by such iconic publications as the Paris Review. Her bestselling effort at an early age, and her nomination for the Pulitzer for her poetry, all point to high opinion backed up by real talent. She is not merely a product of hype, but has the experience and the literary chops to support it. The high opinion meanwhile of mainstream media outlets such as Slate, Rolling Stone, and Billboard, as well as CNN and others, point to her established status as a lasting cultural icon (Murray; Shetty; Mitchell; Amorosi; Leopold et al.; Plimpton). Works Cited A&E Television Networks. “Maya Angelou Biography”. Biography.com. 2014. Web. 25 November 2014. Academy of American Poets. “Maya Angelou”. Poets.org. 2014. Web. 25 November 2014. Read More