Essence Maya Angelou

A celebration of the African American author, poet, and civil rights activist details her award-winning works and the legacy she left on the literary community.

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin From the Paperback edition.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A moving memoir about the legendary author’s relationship with her own mother. Emma Watson’s Our Shared Shelf Book Club Pick! The story of Maya Angelou’s extraordinary life has been chronicled in her multiple bestselling autobiographies. But now, at last, the legendary author shares the deepest personal story of her life: her relationship with her mother. For the first time, Angelou reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence—a presence absent during much of Angelou’s early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old Maya and her older brother away from their California home to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. The subsequent feelings of abandonment stayed with Angelou for years, but their reunion, a decade later, began a story that has never before been told. In Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call “Lady,” revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them. Delving into one of her life’s most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, Mom & Me & Mom explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelou’s rise from immeasurable depths to reach impossible heights. Praise for Mom & Me & Mom “Mom & Me & Mom is delivered with Angelou’s trademark good humor and fierce optimism. If any resentments linger between these lines, if lives are partially revealed without all the bitter details exposed, well, that is part of Angelou’s forgiving design. As an account of reconciliation, this little book is just revealing enough, and pretty irresistible.”—The Washington Post “Moving . . . a remarkable portrait of two courageous souls.”—People “[The] latest, and most potent, of her serial autobiographies . . . [a] tough-minded, tenderhearted addition to Angelou’s spectacular canon.”—Elle “Mesmerizing . . . Angelou has a way with words that can still dazzle us, and with her mother as a subject, Angelou has a near-perfect muse and mystery woman.”—Essence

Born in Missouri in 1928, Maya Angelou had a difficult childhood. Jim Crow laws segregated blacks and whites in the South. Her family life was unstable at times. But much like her poem, "Still I Rise," Angelou was able to lift herself out of her situation and flourish. She moved to California and became the first black—and first female—streetcar operator before following her interest in dance. She became a professional performer in her twenties and toured the U.S. and Europe as an opera star and calypso dancer. But Angelou's writing became her defining talent. Her poems and books, including I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, brought her international acclaim.

This collection of thirty-six poems is, once again, eloquent evidence of Maya Angelou's continuing celebration of life: Here are poems of love and memory; poems of racial confrontation; songs of the street and songs from the heart.

Essence Books presents a revised and updated edition of its popular 2002 hardcover that sold over 40,000 copies.50 of the Most Inspiring African-Americans features dynamic profiles of some of today's most influential, powerful, and, above all, inspiring African-Americans.This is a coffee table softcover that features people of color who are breaking barriers in political, educational, business, and entertainment arenas, as well as those building up their communities. This exquisite 160-page book includes more than 100 stunning photographs. Includes some of the most inspiring African-Americans of present dayrole models, icons, and innovatorswho are changing our world, are in the news, and are making a difference on both national and grass-roots levels Profiles include such well-known and respected people as Maya Angelou, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Barack Obama, Condoleeza Rice and Tyra Banks Essence magazine sells over 1 million copies per issue and has approximately 8 million loyal monthly subscribers Essence 50 of the Most Inspiring African-Americans hardcover edition currently has over 57,000 copies in print

A remarkable story of friendship, love, and courage. When Maya Angelou and Tavis Smiley met in 1986, he was twenty-one and she was fifty-eight. For the next twenty-eight years, they shared an unlikely, special bond. Angelou was a teacher and a maternal figure to Smiley, and they talked often, of art, politics, history, race, religion, music, love, purpose, and -- more than anything -- courage. Courage to be open, to follow dreams, to believe in oneself. In My Journey with Maya, Smiley recalls a joyful friendship filled to the brim with sparkling conversation -- in Angelou's gardens surrounded by her caged birds, before lectures, sharing meals, and on breaks from it all, they sought each other out for comfort, advice, and above all else, friendship. It began when he, a recent college graduate and a poor kid from a big family in the Midwest, was invited to join the revered writer on a sojourn to Africa. He would be handling her bags, but Maya didn't let that stop a friendship waiting to happen. Angelou was generous, challenging, and inspirational. Like a mother to him, she was selfless. Here Tavis Smiley shares his personal memories of Maya Angelou, of a decades-long friendship with one of history's most fascinating women, one who left as indelible an imprint on American culture as she did on him.

This book presents the extraordinary life and writings of Maya Angelou. It examines the changing viewpoints in her six autobiographies within the context of women's and African American autobiographies, with specific reference to the slave narrative and to contemporary fiction and film. Maya Angelou: The Iconic Self examines this iconic artist's work as an autobiographer, offering an up-to-date assessment of Angelou's contributions to American literature and to American and international culture. This is the only book to interpret Angelou's autobiographies as unique experiments in the history of black narrative. It attests to Angelou's creativity in transforming the typical single-volume autobiography into a six-volume personal and cultural adventure that tells the truth but reads like fiction. The narratives cover the years from the Great Depression (1941) to the days following the assassinations of Malcolm X (1965) and Martin Luther King (1968), emphasizing Angelou's roles as mother, daughter, granddaughter, wife, and friend. This revised edition also presents information about Maya Angelou's funeral and her continuing legacy since her death in 2014. The depth and scope of the book's observations regarding Angelou's autobiographies will be of great interest to readers seeking an analysis of the interconnections among Angelou's writings as well as serve students taking courses in women's studies or black culture studies.