Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

INTRODUCTION: "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"

A. The origin of Maya Angelou's title, and an interview

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46459/sympathy-56d22658afbc0

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48989/caged-bird

Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise | Memory and Setting in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" | PBS LearningMediaExplore how growing up in the South during the Jim Crow Era influenced Maya Angelou’s writing in this video from American Masters | Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise. The power of memory and the importance of setting inform both the video and discussion questions as students are asked to consider why Maya Angelou chose to write about her own life in her famous autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Momma (Annie Henderson) in her store Maya's mother, Vivian Baxter Little Marguerite

Some context: timeline 1930-1939 here

James Weldon Johnson, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing", the Negro National Anthem

Black men in the South: an example from 15 years later: the murder of Emmett Till (1955)

B. THE MOVIE ADAPTATION - better watch it after reading the book

To go further

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