by Alexa Hyde
This project explores Maya Angelou’s influence as a poet during the Black Arts Movement and contrasts her influence to Amiri Baraka, the man who started the BAM with his radical poem “Black Art.”
Biography-
Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of three years old, her parent’s marriage ended leaving her to live back and forth between her mother and grandmother. Tragically, when she was eight years old, her mother’s boyfriend sexually abused and raped her. Angelou told her brother what had happened and soon after her mother’s boyfriend was found kicked to death, most likely by her uncle’s. For the next five years Angelou remained mute, believing her voice was a weapon. She has stated that “I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone…” (Angelou). Over the next five years Angelou developed a love for language and it was her teacher Mrs. Flowers who got her to speak again at the age of twelve. She emphasized the spoken word and instilled in her a love of poetry. Angelou began reading black authors such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B Du Bois, and Paul Lawrence Dunbar.
It was not until the 1950’s that Angelou began to focus on her writing career, but her most famous works were not inspired until after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in the late 1960’s, whom she heard speaking at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In the 1960’s she joined the Harlem Writers guild, which focused on prose and she became involved in black activism. Angelou is best known for her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which covers the first seventeen years of her life. Her five other autobiographies follow a series and were written over a course of forty decades. Her second autobiography Gather Together in My Name, written in 1974 covers Angelou’s years in poverty. Her following four autobiographies Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas (1976), The heart of a Woman (1981), All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), A song Flung Up to Heaven (2002) continue to cover the events of her life, but do not follow a strict chronology. Her final autobiography took over fifteen years to write because it dealt with the time from when she left Africa to when she wrote I know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which was a period when many painful things were happening to the African-American community, including the assassinations of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King.
Angelou is also well known for her poetry during the Black Arts Movement, which spanned from 1965-1975. The volume of poetry Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie focuses on Angelou’s perspective concerning what it means to be a black woman in the United States. She published this anthology of thirty-eight poems in 1971 and was nominated for a Pulitzer prize. Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie is divided into two sections, the first section is about love, while the second section contains poems that are more aggressive in tone. Chad Walsh calls the poems “a moving blend of lyricism and harsh social observation” (123).
In 1993, Maya Angelou recited her poem, “On the Pulse of Morning” during President Clinton’s inaugural address. She won a Grammy Award for the audio recording of the poem for “Best Spoken Word” in 1994. She thus started to read aloud poems more often and began her path on the lecture circuit. She has a lifetime position at Wake Forest University in American Studies as a Reynolds Professor, and in 2008 Angelou wrote Letter to My Daughter writing to the daughter she never had, sharing advice and anecdotes, earning her a NAACP Image Award.
Looking over Angelou’s literary career, her different works reveal her diverse talent as an author and poet. By 1975 Carol E. Neubauer had already written that “Angelou had become recognized as a spokesperson not only for blacks and women, but also for all people who are committed to raising the moral standards of living in the United States” (Southern Women Writers: New Generation).
Analysis-
As a category, “African American poetry” is hard to define precisely. Often it is considered a product of art written by an African American, but could it also be written about African Americans? These questions are asked, because of the continually changing canon. Two poets who continue the African American oral tradition are Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou. Both poets wrote some of their most famous pieces during the Black Arts Movement, and expressed their ideas orally, by reciting their poems aloud. Social activist Bell Hooks believes, “performance has been crucial to liberation” because “the voice as an instrument could be used by everyone, in any location” (Hooks 2). Poetry benefits from performance, because of one’s tone of voice, emphasis on certain words, emotion and sight, which all merge together to affect the audience. Both poets utilize performance, but Angelou’s ability to humanize her poems and connect with both black and female audiences has contributed to her lifelong success and has subjected her to canonization.
The Black Arts Movement is characterized as the artistic branch of the Black Power Movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Black Power spawned from frustration over continued discrimination. The movement grew in parallel with Civil Rights; however discrimination did not end when legislation was finally enacted, like many had hoped. Blacks still experienced police brutality and racism, which awoke black consciousness. Originally the movement strived to be nonviolent, but after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. radical followers of Black Power realized they should push back when provoked. The impact of the movement was the realization that black is beautiful and African American culture was legitimized.
The artist branch inspired black’s to establish their own publishing houses, magazines, journals and art institutions. Hundreds of artists heeded the call to create art to further the black liberation struggle, including the man who started it all Amiri Baraka. His radical poem “Black Art” called for violence against those he felt were responsible for injustice and to create separate institutions for blacks. Literary Critic Arnold Rampersad characterized Baraka’s poetry as “ruthless and having an apocalyptic view.” Among Baraka’s strengths was his ability to publicly perform his poems. Spoken poetry was the “most popular art form” of the Black Arts Movement and Baraka was among the poets labeled the “Black Power performance poets” (Painter 340). After reading “Black Art,” one should listen to his recordings http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh2P-tlEH_w, in order to understand the power of performance. The different art forms, of reading and listening to the same poem evoke varied responses. After reading the poem, one is struck by foul language, and is more likely to take Baraka’s words more literally, when he states, “we want poems that kill” (Baraka 1). However, it is important to understand that Baraka and other “Black Power performance poets” did not hate white people; they were merely frustrated with continued anti-black violence and found fighting back to be the only necessary course of action. One can discern Baraka’s intentions when listening to the poem, where the overall effect is not hateful, but radical. Baraka sounds out the noises of an airplane that is, “setting fire and death to whities ass” which verges on ridiculous, because the words are drawn out and dramatic (Baraka 1). Hearing “rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr tuhtuthtuhtuhtuhtuhtuhtuh rrrrrrrrrrrrrr” emphasizes the action differently than reading the same sounds. The poem is strengthened by the loud inclusion of jazz music in the background, where the sounds of trumpets reinforce Baraka’s frustration.
Maya Angelou was directly involved in the Black Arts Movement through the Harlem Writers Guild which was a group of writers who focused more on prose than poetry. Her contribution to the movement came mostly in the form of autobiographies which greatly contradicted Baraka and the mass appeal of poetry performed in the dynamic vernacular of the time. However, Angelou quickly became recognized as a highly respected spokesperson for blacks and women after her first highly acclaimed autobiography entitled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Her poetry came after Caged Bird and followed the African American oral tradition, which functions like slave songs, emphasizing one’s response to loss and oppression.
Angelou’s anthology of thirty-eight poems entitled “Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie” was her poetic response to all the painful things that were happening to the African American community. The source of this pain stemmed from the assassination of Malcolm X, the Watts riot, the assassination of Dr. King, the continued degradation of blacks and marginalization of black women. Poet Chad Walsh offers that Angelou wrote “a moving blend of lyricism and harsh social observation” (123). The work is divided into two parts. The first section, titled “Where Love is a Scream of Anguish” discusses the agony of love and the second section, titled “Just Before the World Ends” is more aggressive in tone and tackles the existence of a racist society. The title of the series comes from Aneglou’s belief that “we as individuals… are still so innocent that we think if we asked our murderer just before he puts the final wrench upon the throat, ‘Would you please give me a cool drink of water?’ and he would do so” (Braxton 157).
Angelou followed popular tradition and performed some of her poems, which were rich in social commentary. She set out to illuminate the condition of African Americans in the United States. Her poems praised black beauty, the strength of women and the human spirit while demanding social justice for all. Before these poems were published, they were first recorded in 1969 by GWP Records as songs in The Poetry of Maya Angelou a recording of herself performing the poems.
Angelou, famous for having three and possibly more marriages speaks to the agony of love in Part One, which she is obviously not a stranger. The poem “To a Man” speaks of the “Black Golden Amber” color of a man’s skin and characterizes a man as “tender” and “gentle” (Angelou 10). Her description of a black man as “Golden Amber” can be recognized as praising black beauty, which was a common theme of Black Power. After listening to recordings of “To a Man” one notices small differences, such as slightly changed words. When she says I laughed you hear an exaggerated laugh out loud, which is greater emphasized than reading the words “ha ha.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj92D3c7Dmw. However, unlike Amiri Baraka the emphasis of Angelou’s contribution to the Black Arts movement is not her oral performance, rather focuses on her rich content of social commentary.
Poems from Part Two of Just Give Me a Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie comment on the existence of a racist society. In the poem “No No No No” Angelou uses harsh language such as “gap-legg’d whor*” and “crusty asses” to desensitize the audience, while identifying the people who are responsible for causing blacks harm, dating back to the thirteen colonies “of the eastern shore” (Angelou 43). She uses derogatory stereotypes of blacks such as “mammies” and “pickaninnies,” in order to reclaim the negative connotation of the slur and say “no more” (Angelou 44). The weight of this poem comes from Angelou’s ability to shed light on the psychological impact blacks suffered from internalizing hate, “I’ve let your men cram my mouth with their black throbbing hate and I swallowed after” (Angelou 42). Visualizing the emotions described in her poems, evoke painful images for many readers which is necessary to bring about change to a hegemonic society.
Two poems in Part Two speak to the age old act of “playing the dozens” which is an element of the African American oral tradition in which two competitors, go back and forth in a competition of good-natured insults. The dozens is a contest of power of wit and mental agility. In “The Thirteens (White)” and “The Thirteens (Black)” Angelou plays a twist on the dozens by comparing the insults blacks and whites, by paralleling different actions according to race. Angelou incorporates the famous act of insulting your opponent’s mother or other family members until the other has no comeback. For the “White” poem, Angelou plays up the stereotype that just because you are white, you are automatically wealthy. She characterizes whites as having a “chauffer” and “cook” while incorporating “your momma” (Angelou 49). In contrast, the “Black” poem deals with blacks assumed association with poverty. Angelou writes, “Your Momma took to shouting… Your sister’s in the streets” which stereotypes the common insults associated with each race (50). Angelou causes one to rethink the funny nature of “the dozens” by including subjects that were still sore in the white and black communities. Such subject matters as “playing the dozens” would be good inclusion to the African American canon, because it provides commentary on the common social practices lived out by blacks.
The canon for African American poetry originated in London in 1773 and was first used cited in the United States during the Antebellum period by the enslaved, George Horton. Angelou was greatly influenced by her predecessors, who started the tradition of the slave narrative and incorporated the association of slave songs in her work. Angelou’s work should be included in the American Canon, because the content of her material speaks to the struggle of African Americans and in particular women. She deals with both racism and sexism, which are both relevant to American History. Baraka saw poetry as a weapon for action, while Angelou viewed it as her way to express the human heart. Baraka’s poem had more of a mass appeal during the time, because of their radical nature, use of performance and vernacular speech, but it was Angelou’s ability to emotionally connect with her audience through poems, prose, essays, as well as her varied career in composing, directing, acting, singing, dancing and lecturing that consistently kept her in the public sphere. Her poetry and prose are among her two most important contributions to the African American canon and should be anthologized in order to solidify her influence as a writer.
BIBLIOGRAPHY-
Angelou, Maya. “Just Give Me a Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie.” The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. New York: Random House, 1994. 7-51. Print.
Angelou, Maya. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” BBC World Service Book Club. BBC.October 2005. Web.
Angelou, Maya; Braxton, Joanne M. (1999), I Know why the Caged Bird Sings: A Case study.New York City, New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.,
Hagen, Lyman B. “Heart of a Woman, Mind of a Writer, and Soul of a Poet: A Critical Analysisof the Writings of Maya Angelou.” Lanham, Maryland: University Press, 1997. 123.Print.<Chad Walsh Quote>
Hooks, Bell. “Performance Practice as a site of opposition.” Let’s get it on: The Politics of Black Performance. Ed. Catherine Ugwu. Seattle: Bay Press, 1995. 210-221.
Painter, Nell Irvin. “The New Negro.” Creating Black Americans. New York; Oxford Press, 2007. 340. Print.
Rampersad, Arnold. “African-American Poetry; Past, Present, and Future.”TILTS. Harry Ransom Center, Protho Theater. 15 Sept. 2011. Lecture.
Rev. of Black Art, by Amiri Baraka. Chikenbones: A Jornal for Literary andArtistic African-American Themes. Web. 2 Dec. 2011.
-For the biography of Amiri Baraka look at http://www.amiribaraka.com/
-For the description of the Black Arts Movement look at http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5647Author, poet, scriptwriter, playwright, performer, actress, and composer.
