Maya Angelou 101

A brief guide to her poetry.

Maya Angelou had a broad and distinguished career both inside and outside the literary realm. She is most famous for her work as a poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist, working with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She also worked in entertainment, as a singer, a dancer, an actor, and a director. Her poetry was inspired and informed by her life and work, and this personal connection often made her poems profound and powerful. Over the course of a career spanning the 1960s to her death in 2014, she captured, provoked, inspired, and ultimately transformed American people and culture. The following eight poems--presented chronologically from her earliest publication to the public poem she read at President Bill Clinton's first inauguration--showcase Angelou's poetics.

To read the full article, with images, visit the Poetry Foundation website.