Blog Post #3

Maya Angelou- Documentary

By- Ava Daniels



Before viewing this documentary, based on the life of Maya Angelou, my knowledge of her timeline was very limited. I believe that the information taught in school about Angelou was very broad and left out multiple details. If I am being quite honest, before watching I just knew that Maya Angelou was a poet and had relations and impact with the ivil Rights movement. I had no idea what events took place that led up to her trials and tribulations as well as the events that led her to start writing and memorizing poetry. 

At the beginning of the documentary, Angelou's upbringing was talked about along with a traumatic experience that sparked her love and talents for poetry and expressive writing. Because she spoke of her mothers boyfriend raping her, she believes that her words were what caused him to be murdered. This reminds me of how people believe in speaking something into existence. Due to this, Maya Angelou became mute for 5 years. During these years, I learned that this is when she spent the most time developing writing skills, memorizing and writing poetry, and more. I thought that this was very interesting and eye opening because i had no knowledge of this.

Later in the film, it was revealed that Angelou had become very involved in the Civil Rights Movement. She Met very influential figures such as Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and more. She began to write poetry that would raise money for the cause. She would also speak about these issues to the public, which taking into consideration of the time this took place, was one, extremely brave, as well as important. 

I think that this film taught me a lot of things that I did not know about Maya Angelou's life and the struggles that she went through as well as sacrifices she made for then sake of herself, public, and family.   


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