Title: When We Write For We: Maya Angelou and The Civil Rights Movement - Read Poetry
Headings: When We Write For We: Maya Angelou and The Civil Rights Movement
When We Write For We: Maya Angelou and The Civil Rights Movement
Content: Though Maya Angelou’s work spans past The Civil Rights Movement, her poetry has always been revolutionary, especially her famous poem, “Caged Bird”, in which she explores the liberation of black people from slavery. The “free bird” she writes about represents liberated people celebrating their independence and can be found in the fifth stanza: The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own. The revolutionary act of creating art explores the depth of the human experience and our shared experiences. Art is an opportunity to document our societal history just as much as it is an opportunity to express emotion and explore trauma. Later in “Caged Bird,” Maya writes both about the spark of The Civil Rights Movement and her traumatic experience with rape in her early years. She explores the idea that even in our freedom, the cage of racism and inequality burdens our communities: But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing. The Civil Rights Movement not only declared the need for basic human rights, but also for economic rights. Poverty was not a foreign concept in the ‘60s;