Maya Angelou Research Paper

Improved Essays
Maya Angelou: A Phenomenal artist
Maya Angelou -- possibly the greatest poet and activist ever? Of course! Maya Angelou is the definition of an artist with her many creative works and influential activism. It is clear, without a doubt, that she is one of the greatest artists of all time.
Angelou had many fantastic works throughout the course of her life and participated in the making of many iconic things on and off screen. She was an overall performer skilled in dancing, singing, writing, acting and was also a producer and editor. Moreover, she was even the first black woman to become a director. Maya was heavily decorated with awards and many more nominations. For example, Angelou was nominated for two Tony awards and received the National Medal of Arts. Along with the Pulitzer prize, an Emmy, North Carolina
…show more content…
I’ve been female for a long time now, It’d be stupid not to be on my own side.” - Maya Angelou. Most importantly, Maya was not just a poet and performer, but also a powerful activist for all. She was a feminist that fought for equal treatment of women and women of color. Her voice convinced hundreds of women to come forward as harassment and abuse victims. Similarly, she encouraged women everywhere in a male dominated world and showed young girls especially those of color how to be bold and courageous. Later on in life she even mentored Oprah Winfrey Likewise, she was a civil rights activist working with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. As She herself once said, “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the present, and renders the future inaccessible.” Moreover, she earned the Coretta King Scott Honor, Woman of The Year, National Legacy award. She also was the Southern Christian Fellowship leader earning the Chubb Fellowship, Langston Hughes and Mother Teresa Award. Maya Angelou influenced millions of people of all ages and backgrounds with her activism making her one of the most iconic women in

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Her main efforts were concentrated in areas of “citizenship, education and interracial cooperation”(We Seek to Know, pg 95). Her efforts were acknowledged by leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. who noted “she understood that if we could break through the illiteracy, we could break into mainstream…

    • 1608 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She made lots of people realize that colored people are the same as us. They don't look the same but they still feel what we…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While working as a teacher, she began to fight for a change in America because working conditions were poor. Her fighting led to her being one of the most influential women of the Civil Rights Era, because she fought for working conditions and equal rights on transportation, she created the anti-lynching campaign, spoke about rapes, and encouraged blacks to…

    • 871 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An African American who has been an inspiration in my life is Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou is altogether an amazing person. Maya has had a huge impact on my life. Maya died on May 28, 2014 at the age of 83. She has went through some things in her life that no one would ever think of.…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Maya Angelou was born with the name Marguerite Annie Johnson, Angelou had a very tough childhood. Her parents parted ways while she was still undeveloped, she and her elder brother, Bailey, were both sent to live with their fathers, mother, Anne Henderson, In Stamps, Arkansas. As a Black American, Angelou endured racial discrimination and prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas. During a visit with her mother, Maya Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend at the fresh age of seven. Her uncles avenged the action of her mother's boyfriend by murdering him.…

    • 1127 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928. Maya grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. Maya Angelou is a female that is a black American American that liked to experience. At a very young age Maya parents had split up. At the age of 7, during a visit with her mother, Maya was raped by her mother’s boyfriend.…

    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People are born into the world with a purpose; each passing moment is another step in that direction. Marguerite Annie Johnson, more commonly known as Maya Angelou, was born to inspire the world and leave behind a legacy so great it will never be forgotten. She was a scholar, reading the works of great writers such as “Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson and W.E.B. Du Bois” (Angelou, I Know Why 15-16). Maya Angelou was a teacher, as stated by Oprah Winfrey, “The world knows her as a poet, but at the heart of her, she was a teacher. ‘When you learn, teach.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Maya Angelou (Marguerite Ann Johnson), talks about her experiences growing up as a black girl in the rural South and in numerous cities. Angelou has an unusual degree of interest and understanding. Obsessed by the shift from her biological parents and her sense that she was not pretty, Angelo often removed herself, eluding into her reading. Angelou’s autobiography traces the beginning of her evolution into a self-sufficient, educated, and warmhearted…

    • 71 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To begin with, Maya Angelou was an African American civil rights activist and poet. Maya was born on April 4th, 1928 in Stamps, Arkansas. ” As an African American child, Angelou experienced firsthand prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas”(Info from Biography.com). As a child she was also sexually…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A renowned writer, poet, dancer, singer, actor, friend, and Civil Rights activist, Maya Angelou was a prominent and undoubtedly successful figure throughout the second half of the twentieth century. With many successes throughout her lifetime, Angelou is known for her poem I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings as well as her contributions to the Civil Rights movement. However, many events and people contributed to Angelou’s works and art style. Commonly labeled as a “Renaissance Woman,” Maya Angelou conquered and achieved much in literature, art, and politics during her life (Academy of Achievement, 2014). Maya Angelou was born on April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Current Biography (Bio Ref Bank) (1974). One of the largest reasons that she is remembered is the fact that “Maya Angelou brought about a paradigm shift in American literature and culture so that the works, and the gifts, the talents of women writers, including women writers of color, could be brought to the foreground and appreciated” ("Maya Angelou, Poet, Activist And Singular Storyteller, Dies At 86."). During her lifetime, Angelou was credited as one of the most renowned voices of the 20th century, for her writing and her work in political movements of the time ("Successories Honors Maya Angelou with New Inspirational Art."). A legacy of “Angelou's writings, which attest to her gift for survival in the face of hardship and injustice, demonstrate her inexhaustible capacity for renewed hope, determination, and love” ("Angelou, Maya. " Current Biography (Bio Ref Bank) (1994) allow Angelou to leave the legacy of emotion in her wake.…

    • 1776 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She then goes on about even though she is not perfect, people should still be proud of her for being self-confident and sets an example for all women. In short, in her poem, “Phenomenal Woman,” Maya Angelou shows how proud she is to be herself even though she knows she is not perfect. Angelou speaks to other women to not let society tear their self-confidence and beauty that lies within…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, is a writer,and she is known for many auto-biographical novels and she also writes poetry and essays. She also loved to study music, dance,and drama. From 1963 to 1966 Angelou was involved in the black civil rights movement. Maya Angelou wrote this specific poem called; “Phenomenal Women”. Angelou has a very creative way of saying things throughout her poem.…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The paper deals with the comparison and contrast between the two novels; Beloved by written Toni Morrison and I know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Both the writers were black females and very aptly describe the lives of the blacks in their respective novels. Introduction: Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison were two influential women in the literary world, especially in the black community. These ladies discussed about the miseries of black community in their own unique style.…

    • 1243 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The civil rights movement was a time in history that made an impact on the people of America. It was an era when society was trying to make the segregation between black and whites , disappear. Maya Angelou grew up during this time period and went through the stress of having people discriminate on her because of her skin color. The civil rights movement made a personal influence on Maya Angelou’s poetry, as revealed in her poems , “ I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, and ,” Still I Rise”. Growing up during the 1930’s was difficult for Maya Angelou because it was a time of discrimination and separation.…

    • 1114 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays