Weekly Online Lesson Online Lesson Archive Grade Level: 9-12 Subject: Poetry/American Literature

Greetings from Maya Angelou

73-year-old poet-writer-professor-actress-director-singer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou has agreed to design a line of greeting cards and gifts for Hallmark. Angelou, author of the classic memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and one of only two poets ever to have read at a presidential inauguration, was initially cool to the idea. But after meeting with executives of the Kansas City-based company, she reconsidered.

"If I’m the people’s poet," she reasoned, "then I ought to be in the people’s hands—and I hope in their hearts."

The Maya Angelou Life Mosaic Collection has been in stores since just after Christmas. It includes 104 greeting cards and assorted bookends, photo frames, coffee mugs and other gift items. Many of the messages inscribed in the cards and other products are condensed versions of essays from Angelou’s books, touching on such themes as love and friendship.

The collaboration does not come without criticism. “I think it’s preposterous,” said Billy Collins, the poet laureate of the United States and a fellow Random House author. “It lowers the understanding of what poetry actually can do."

Decide for yourself by browsing the Maya Angelou Life Mosaic at Hallmark.com.

In this week's online lesson you will meet Maya Angelou, read selected poems, learn about her life, and listen to readings of her works.

Meet Maya Angelou

Begin this week's lesson by reading a summary of Maya Angelou's extraordinary life, which you can do by visiting the University of Minnesota site Voices From the Gaps: Women Writers of Color. Use the Name index to find Maya Angelou and go to that page.

As you read the Biography-Criticism section, it will become apparent to you that Angelou's life and literature are intricately interwoven. How would you summarize Angelou's turbulent and "disruptive" childhood? How would you characterize her youth? Who provided a stabilizing influence in her life? When did she change her name?

The title of Angelou's first work is taken from the poem "sympathy" by which great black poet? In which book does Angelou appeal to her audience for forgiveness for the accounts of her wretched past? In her autobiography All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, when Angelou speaks of "finally [coming] home," she is referring to what place?

Selected Works

In this section, you will read several of Maya Angelou's poems. Begin with the Maya Angelou poetry exhibit at The Academy of American Poets (poets.org). Read the brief introduction (with additional information about her accomplishments), and then read Alone and Still I Rise. How are Angelou's life experiences evident in each of these poems?

Find more poems at Empire:ZINE's Maya Angelou site. Click poetry of and then choose from the selected poems listed. In particular, read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and The Rock Cries Out To Us Today, the poem she read in 1993 at President Clinton's inauguration. After reading these two poems, how would you describe Maya's growth as a poet, and how would you characterize her transformation in life?

Interviews and Readings

You've read her works and learned her story; now hear the words of Maya Angelou from her own voice. First browse to EducETH: Angelou, Maya, a collection of resources about the author. As you browse down the page, look for video and audio icons indicating a multimedia resource. Don't miss Angelou's 1986 interview about the black experience from the Roland Collection. Also, listen to Angelou's reading of The Heart of a Woman. Choose others that interest you. How does hearing Maya Angelou read her own works affect the experience of her poetry?

Oprah interviewed Maya Angelou in the December 2000 issue of O. Read the article, and then scroll back up to click Listen In and hear Oprah's one-on-one conversation with the writer (read along as you listen). When, according to Angelou, are people their most beautiful? How did the death of Maya's grandmother affect her? What does Angelou say about the principle of courage?

Newspaper Activities

Sharon Burt, author of the biography you first read, concluded by writing, "The life and work of Maya Angelou are fully intertwined." Maya Angelou wrote from her own experience, but in doing so she wrote about the human experience. Certainly real-life experiences have been the source of many great works of literature.

Consider the events you read about in a current issue of Targetnewspaper as a source for literature. Find a story that speaks to you, or that is meaningful to you in some way. Use the news story as the basis of a poem, a short story, or a personal essay.

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