Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou (http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~rboeder/afs/MA.jpg)

"Out of the huts of history's shame, I rise. Up from a past that's rooted in pain, I rise. I'm a black ocean; leaping and wide, welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear, I rise. Bringing that my ancestors gave; I am the dream and hope of a slave. I rise, I rise, I rise."

Maya Angelou has helped many women overcome their pasts. Maya has written a tremendous amount of poems for not only other women to overcome but so she herself could overcome her troubled past. All of her poems have helped her and she realized she wasn't the only person that experienced certain problems in her life.

As an adolescent, Maya was molested by her mother's boyfriend. This tragedy caused her to go mute because her uncles killed her mother's boyfriend. She was sent back and forth to her grandmother's as a child with her brother. When she would go back to live her mom, she didn't like it. Maya had run away when she was much younger to live with her dad. Unfortunately, she didn't like living with him either. While traveling house to house, she matured quickly.

When she left her father's house, she moved into a homeless shelter for children. It had taken her almost a month to get back to her mother's. Maya wanted to prove to everyone that she was very mature. Maya rushed her maturity and it resulted in a pregnancy at age 16. Later on in life Maya worked as a prostitute.

Being a mother was a struggle for her. She had thought of committing suicide but the thought of her son caused her not to do so. Maya had depended on her ex husband to provide for her and her son. She pleaded the fifth about some things that no one knew about.

All of these struggles soon turned into a book of literature, as I like to say. The story starts off with her childhood. The story blossoms and allows you to see that you can be or do anything you desire, no matter where you came from. The second book was focused on her relationship with her grandmother and brother.

Even with a troubled childhood, Maya is a very successful woman. After having her son she toured Europe and Africa. She played in a musical called, Porgy and Bess. Maya has twelve bestselling books. The most important award is the Pulitzer Prize that Maya has won. She was nominated for a Grammy.

Maya had become editor of Ghana's African Review. Maya was the second poet to read their poem at the Presidential Inauguration. She was a professor at Wake Forest University. Her position is lifetime there and she teaches American studies. Dr. Maya Angelou had decided to focus on her writing skills earlier in her life by joining Harlem Writers Guild.

Despite Maya's past, she was able to overcome. She allowed African American women to not be ashamed of where they come from. The most important thing is that she helped me. I now know that no matter where I come from, I can overcome and be successful later on in life.

"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 care. Cause I'm a woman phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that's me."