.Friday, September 5, 2008 ♥
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By Maya Angelou
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
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 my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Labels: Phenomenal Woman Poem
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 8:21 PM
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A simple video clip made myself.
Enjoy (:
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 7:37 PM
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Original name: Marguerite Johnson
Place of Birth: Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri
Date of birth: April 4, 1928
Grew up in: St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas
Roles: An author, poet, educator, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist
1959- At the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
1961 to 1962- An associate editor of The Arab Observer in Cairo, Egypt, the only English-language news weekly in the Middle East, and
1964 to 1966- She became the feature editor of the African Review in Accra, Ghana.
1974- She returned to the U.S. and was appointed by Gerald Ford to the Bicentennial Commission and later by Jimmy Carter to the Commission for International Woman of the Year.
1981- She accepted a lifetime appointment as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
1993- She wrote and delivered a poem, "On The Pulse of the Morning," at the inauguration for President Bill Clinton at his request.
The first black woman director in Hollywood, Angelou has written, produced, directed, and starred in productions for stage, film, and television.
1971- She wrote the original screenplay and musical score for the film Georgia, Georgia, and was both author and executive producer of a five-part television miniseries "Three Way Choice." She has also written and produced several prize-winning documentaries, including "Afro-Americans in the Arts," a PBS special for which she received the Golden Eagle Award.
Labels: Biography
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 6:14 PM
.Thursday, September 4, 2008 ♥
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Her parents divorced when she was only three.
She lived with her brother Bailey together with their grandmother in the small town of Stamps, Arkansas.
She enjoyed a close relationship with her brother, who gave her the nickname Maya when they were very young.
However, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend at age of seven and too ashamed to tell anyone .
The man was killed by her uncle after they acknowleged it .
She fell silent and did not talk for five years .
Maya began to speak again at 13, when she and her brother rejoined their mother in San Francisco. Maya attended Mission High School and won a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco's Labor School.
She later returned to high school, but became pregnant in her senior year and graduated a few weeks before giving birth to her son, Guy.
She left home at 16 and took on the difficult life of a single mother, supporting herself and her son by working as a waitress and cook, but she had not given up on her talents for music, dance, performance and poetry.
In 1952, she married a Greek sailor named Tosh Angelos.
Although the marriage did not last, her performing career flourished.
She toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess in 1954 and 1955.
She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows and recorded her first record album, Calypso Lady (1957).
She had composed song lyrics and poems for many years, and by the end of the 1950s was increasingly interested in developing her skills as a writer.
She moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild and took her place among the growing number of young black writers and artists associated with the Civil Rights Movement.
She acted in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks and wrote and performed a Cabaret for Freedom with the actor and comedian Godfrey Cambridge.
In New York, she fell in love with the South African civil rights activist Vusumzi Make and in 1960, the couple moved, with Angelou's son, to Cairo, Egypt.
In Cairo, Angelou served as editor of the English language weekly The Arab Observer.
Angelou and Guy later moved to Ghana, where she joined a thriving group of African American expatriates.
She served as an instructor and assistant administrator at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama, worked as feature editor for The African Review and wrote for The Ghanaian Times and the Ghanaian Broadcasting Company.
During her years abroad, she read and studied voraciously, mastering French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language Fanti.
She met with the American dissident leader Malcolm X in his visits to Ghana, and corresponded with him as his thinking evolved from the racially polarized thinking of his youth to the more inclusive vision of his maturity.
Maya Angelou returned to America in 1964, with the intention of helping Malcolm X build his new Organization of African American Unity.
Shortly after her arrival in the United States, Malcolm X was assassinated, and his plans for a new organization died with him.
Angelou involved herself in television production and remained active in the Civil Rights Movement, working more closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who requested that Angelou serve as Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
His assassination, falling on her birthday in 1968, left her devastated.
With the guidance of her friend, the novelist James Baldwin, she found solace in writing, and began work on the book that would become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
The book tells the story of her life from her childhood in Arkansas to the birth of her child.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published in 1970 to widespread critical acclaim and enormous popular success.
Seemingly overnight, Angelou became a national figure.
In the following years, books of her verse and the subsequent volumes of her autobiographical narrative won her a huge international audience.
She was increasingly in demand as a teacher and lecturer and continued to explore dramatic forms as well.
She wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the film Georgia, Georgia (1972).
Her screenplay, the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Angelou has been invited by successive Presidents of the United States to serve in various capacities.
President Ford appointed her to the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and President Carter invited her to serve on the Presidential Commission for the International Year of the Woman.
President Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1993. Angelou's reading of her poem "On the Pulse of the Morning" was broadcast live around the world.
Since 1981, Angelou has served as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
She has continued to appear on television and in films including Poetic Justice (1993) and the landmark television adaptation of Roots (1977).
She has directed numerous dramatic and documentary programs on television and directed her first feature film, Down in the Delta, in 1996.
The list of her published works now includes more than 30 titles.
These include numerous volumes of verse, beginning with Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971).
Books of her stories and essays include Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now (1993) and Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997).
She has continued the compelling narrative of her life in the books Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1987) and A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002).
In 1991, 1994 and 1997, Maya Angelou participated in a series of live broadcasts for Achievement Television in which she took questions submitted by students from across the United States.
Labels: Her Story
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 5:45 PM
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Paraphrased version:
Unique Woman
Beautiful women ponder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or in a supermodel's shape
But when I start to tell them,
They laugh and say that I'm lying.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The reach of my hips,
The confident in my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Uniquely
An unique woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they crowd around me,
A pack of wolves.
I say,
It's the passion in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The whirl in my waist,
And the delight in my feet.
I'm a woman
Uniquely
An unique woman,
That's me.
Men themselves have perplexed
What's in me that attracted them.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My own thinking,
an unexplainable secret.
When I try to express
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the concave of my back,
The passion in my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The beauty of my style.
I'm a woman
Uniquely.
An unique woman,
That's me.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not lowered.
I don't scream or fidgeting about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It should make you proud.
I say,
It's in the rhythm of my heels,
The curve of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The essential of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Uniquely.
An unique woman,
That's me.
Labels: Paraphrased Phenomenal Woman Poem
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 1:31 PM
.Wednesday, September 3, 2008 ♥
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My understanding of the poem
This a great piece in which Maya express how proud she is about being a Woman a Phenomenal Woman.
A woman that doesn't care what others think. She has a great self confidence she believes that even when she's not "suit a models fashion" man can still bend to her knees.
What makes a person phenomenal is not having "center of attention" qualities but having confidence in oneself.
She has “the grace of her style.” She knows what’s in her and she knows how to tell it like it is.
The ways she thinks is so proud and courageous!
She can certainly say with a smile that she isn’t perfect.
She’s, “not cute or built to fit a fashion model size.”
She may not be perfect but maybe she likes it that way.
She doesn’t have to be loud or jumpy to be someone special.
She can be liked just the way she is.
She won’t change for anyone.
She won’t change her looks or her ways.
“It’s the fire in her eyes.”
She can make a room smile by just telling you her confidence-boosting advice.
She's sophisticated in a way that she present herself in front of others, how she walks and every actions of her body.
The gracefulness within her makes her someone who is forgiving and cheerful.
The poem helps us to boost our self-confidence, beautiful, and motivating to all women.
It makes many people feel like a true, real woman, diva.
The poem also makes people believe that they are beautiful in their own way, everyone is unique.
All a woman needs is self confidence in order to be phenomenal.
This poem clearly shows the character of her womanhood.
Using simple words, pictures and gestures to register the deep things about womanhood.
In this poetry Angelou illustrates and defines true womanhood.
True womanhood is about character and sexuality.
And she shows us that the sexuality of a woman is not directly related to a pretty face, big bosoms or skimpy dressing.
Its about what a lady feels within herself.
Labels: Poem Analysis
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 11:12 PM
.Tuesday, September 2, 2008 ♥
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What are the poetic device used?
The use of repetition and pause make this more than simply words on paper.
Repeating of words emphasizise those keywords in the poem, so as to bring out the importance or th main idea of the poem.
Pause make the poem sounds more smooth sailing.
What kind of mood describes the poem?
Moods that describes the poem are cheerful, lively.
They affected the poetic device used in the poem as they bring out the emotions of the poem which determines what poetic device to be used.
Is the speaker first person or third? Why?
This is the first person speaker.
It could easily allow people to realise what message is the poem is trying to convey to other people by adding personal emotions and thoughts.
How does the poem relate to your everyday experience?
The poem relates to my everyday experiences because I would not feel despise of myself when i met failures, but boosts my self confidence and believes that I could be independent on my own.
I would believe that beauty come from within and do not judge people by their looks, but the way they treated people, and the passion inside them.
Why you chose this poem?
I choose this poem because this poem motivates me a lot on how a woman would really be.
I wouldn't have know so much only after i have finished reading this poem.
Labels: Poem Analysis
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 11:49 PM
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Other poems
Contemporary Announcement
Ring the big bells,
cook the cow,
put on your silver locket.
The landlord is knocking at the door
and I’ve got the rent in my pocket.
Douse the lights,
hold your breath,
take my heart in your hand.
I lost my job two weeks ago
and rent day is here again.
Ring the big bells,
cook the cow,
put on your silver locket.
The landlord is knocking at the door
and I’ve got the rent in my pocket.
Douse the lights,
hold your breath,
take my heart in your hand.
I lost my job two weeks ago
and rent day is here again.
Contemporary Announcement displays how Maya Angelou expresses her feelings about having enough money to pay rent. Maya writes about a lady trying to hold on to her rent money, so she gets dressed up because her landlord. In the poem it states, “ Take my heart cook a cow, put on your silver locket.” That really tells me that she was just trying to butter the landlord, so that she wouldn’t have to pay the rent.
On aging
When you see me sitting quietly,
Like a sack left on the shelf,
Don't think I need your chattering.
I'm listing to myself.
Hold! Stop! Don't pity me!
Hold! Stop your sympathy!
Understanding if you got it,
Otherwise I'll so without it!
When my bones are stiff and aching,
and my feet won't climb the stair,
I will only ask one favor:
Don't bring me no rocking chair.
When you see me walking, stumbling,
Don't study and get it wrong.
'Cause tired don't mean lazy
And every goodbye ain't gone.
I'm the same person I was back then,
A little less hair, a little less chin,
A lot less lungs and much less wind.
But ain't I lucky I can still breathe in.
In On Aging by Maya Angelou talks about the effects on aging with how her personality will never change. Maya expresses how she doesn't want anybody to cut her any slack or pity because she's getting older now.
"When my bones are stiff and aching
And my feet won't climb the stair,
I will only ask one favor:
Don't bring me no rocking chair."
Maya writes this in her poem because, she feels as though her figure may has but her personality hasn't.
Labels: Other poems
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 8:35 PM
.Monday, September 1, 2008 ♥
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Best known for autobiographical books:
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986)
The Heart of a Woman (1981)
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976)
Gather Together in My Name (1974)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)
which was nominated for the National Book Award.
Among her volumes of poetry are
A Brave and Startling Truth (Random House, 1995)
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994)
Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993)
Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987)
I Shall Not Be Moved (1990)
Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? (1983)
Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975)
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971)
which was nominated for the Pulitzer prize.
Labels: Books and Poetries
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 12:48 PM
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Maya Angelou was twice nominated for a Tony award for acting: once for her Broadway debut in Look Away (1973), and again for her performance in Roots (1977).
Dr. Angelou has been nominated for two Grammy Awards for "Best Spoken Word or Non Musical Album" for On The Pulse Of Morning (1993) and Phenomenal Woman (1995). In 2004, she received a Grammy Award nomination in the "Best Spoken Word Album" category for Hallelujah! The Welcome Table. Dr. Angelou has garnered over 50 honorary degrees from colleges and universities worldwide.
Labels: Achievements
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 10:53 AM
.Thursday, August 28, 2008 ♥
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Inspiring
maya angelou gives a speech at the Maya Angelou Public Charter school fundraiser
Labels: Video
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 8:34 PM
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Published Works:
• Phenomenal Woman: Poems Celebrating Women/Cassette
Published 1995
• All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
Published 1991
• And Still I Rise: Poems
Published 1996
• Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists
Published 1996
• A Brave and Startling Truth
Published 1995
• The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou
Published 1994
• Even the Stars Look Lonesome
Published 1997
• Gather Together in My Name
Published 1997
• The Heart of a Woman
Published 1997
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Published 1997
• I Shall Not Be Moved
Published 1991
Labels: Published Works
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 6:55 PM
.Wednesday, August 27, 2008 ♥
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Some of her books include:
Gather Together In My Name - Life Doesn't Frighten Me,
Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now - All Gods Children Need Traveling Shoes,
My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken And Me - Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well - The Heart Of A Woman - Even The Stars Look Lonesome - Black Pearls I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and A Song Flung Up To Heaven
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou.
Labels: Her books
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 9:16 PM
.Tuesday, August 26, 2008 ♥
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One of the interview with Maya Angelou
Was Dr. King the person who had the greatest influence on you?
Maya Angelou: He was one of those persons, certainly, but my sister, my grandmother and uncle who raised me, who taught me, by their actions, that it was good to be good, that it was nice to be nice, influenced me more than any other persons have since that time. My family and the family friends continue to inform me that the character I have become will reflect the characters I have been around.
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 10:14 PM
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"A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent."
"Achievement brings its own anticlimax."
"All great achievements require time."
"All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened."
"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."
"As far as I knew white women were never lonely, except in books. White men adored them, Black men desired them and Black women worked for them."
"At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice."
"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."
"Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives."
"Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage."
"Education helps one case cease being intimidated by strange situations."
"Effective action is always unjust."
"For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place."
"How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!"
"I am overwhelmed by the grace and persistence of my people."
"I answer the heroic question "Death, where is they sting?" with "It is here in my heart and mind and memories.""
"I believe that every person is born with talent."
"I believe we are still so innocent. The species are still so innocent that a person who is apt to be murdered believes that the murderer, just before he puts the final wrench on his throat, will have enough compassion to give him one sweet cup of water."
"I find it interresting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God's will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at commensurate speed."
"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."
"If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities."
"If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities."
"If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die."
"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."
"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded."
"If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning 'Good morning' at total strangers."
"It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength."
"Life loves the liver of it."
"Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ''I'm with you kid. Let's go.''"
"Most plain girls are virtuous because of the scarcity of opportunity to be otherwise."
"Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness."
"My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return."
"My life has been one great big joke, a dance that's walked a song that's spoke, I laugh so hard I almost choke when I think about myself."
"My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors."
"Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway.""
"Nothing will work unless you do."
"Of all the needs (there are none imaginary) a lonely child has, the one that must be satisfied, if there is going to be hope and a hope of wholeness, is the unshaken need for an unshakable God."
"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."
"Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends."
"Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible."
"Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable."
"Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence - neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish - it is an imponderably valuable gift."
"Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon."
"Something made greater by ourselves and in turn that makes us greater."
"The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance."
"The need for change bulldozed road down the center of my mind."
"The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education."
"The sadness of the women's movement is that they don't allow the necessity of love. See, I don't personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed."
"There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it."
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
"There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing."
"There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth."
"We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color."
"We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders."
"We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated."
"While I know myself as a creation of God, I am also obligated to realize and remember that everyone else and everything else are also God's creation."
"Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning."
Labels: Quotes
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 5:55 PM
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Bibliography
http://www.americanpoems.com
http://www.mayaangelou.com/
http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9185388(finished)(video)
http://project1.caryacademy.org/echoes/poet_Maya_Angelou/Angelou'sBiography.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Angelou
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ang0bio-1
http://www.dejaelaine.com/maya.html
Sweetest Moments♪ @ 5:19 PM
