 By 2002 , when Song was published , Angelou had become recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for Blacks and women . She was , as scholar Joanne Braxton has stated , " without a doubt , ... America 's most visible black woman autobiographer " . She had also become " a major autobiographical voice of the time " . Angelou was one of the first African @-@ American female writers to publicly discuss her personal life , and one of the first to use herself as a central character in her books . Writer Julian Mayfield , who called her first autobiography " a work of art that eludes description " , stated that Angelou 's series set a precedent not only for other Black women writers , but for the genre of autobiography as a whole . 
