Books, NonFiction

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Worth A Read Yes
Length 304
Quick Review A heartbreaking look into the formative years of one of America’s greatest poets and humans. 

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Reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou in Houston, Texas | Dress |

Mention Maya Angelou, most people know who she is and the eminence that name conveys. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is one of her most well known works, but I had never read it. Some of these great books, I’ve had a hard time making myself read because I know I’ll never be able to read it for the first time again, but I finally read this one. 

Angelou wrote an incredible memoir about coming of age as a smart black girl in the segregated South, being tossed between family members, surviving trauma, and finding the resilience to keep going. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, speaks to being trapped. Trapped by racism, trapped by circumstance, trapped by trauma, trapped by family, trapped by any number of things. Angelou grew up under vastly different circumstances in a very different time, but I saw myself in her words. Angelou conveys the suffocation of being trapped by people’s perceptions and actions. It’s impossible not to ache for the little girl within the pages. 

The words are incredible moving. Angelou has a way of describing simple, quotidian things in a magnificent way, “fans moved with the detachment of old men.” It’s beautiful in it’s relatability. The writing is incredible. Angelou was a poet, and her ability to play with words and paint pictures is on full display. 

What spoke to me most was the shame and loneliness Angelou dealt with. She was abandoned repeatedly by her family depending on what suited their needs. After being raped as a young girl, she dealt with the shame, guilt, religious sorrow, and gaslighting alone. It’s a sad story, but it’s not a unique one.

She was born Marguerite Johnson. “After Bailey learned definitely that I was his sister, he refused to call me Marguerite, but rather addressed me each time as “Mya Sister,” and in later more articulate years, after the need for brevity had shortened the appellation to “My,” it was elaborated into “Maya.” The love between Bailey and Maya was apparent on every page. She took the name he gave her and wore it publically until the day she died. 

It’s hard to write about iconic works like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings because they are so well known and talked about with so much reverence. I loved this touching memoir. It’s in the American canon for a reason.  

Memorable Quotes
“Excitement is a drug, and people whose lives are filled with violence are always winding where the next “fix” is coming from.”
“The Black woman in the South who raises sons, grandsons and nephews had her heartstrings tied to a hanging noose.”
“It seemed terribly unfair to have a toothache and a headache and have to bear at the same time the heavy burden of Blackness.”
“He told me once that “all knowledge is spendable currency, depending on the market.””
“The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time that she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power.”

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

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Title: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Author: Maya Angelou
Publisher: Random House
Copyright: 1969
ISBN: 9780812980028

In My Own Words, Lifestyle

Black History Month 2020

Happy Black History Month!

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Holy crap. I can’t believe it’s February already. I feel like I haven’t done anything productive this year. Oh well, there are still 336 days left to turn this shit around. 

Back on topic: 
There are so many amazing heritage months during the year. Every year, I try and focus on one or two because I can’t focus on them all. Damnit! The very first year, I spent February celebrating black women for Black History Month. (Last year, I focused on Asian American Pacific Heritage Month and LGBTQIA+ Pride Month.) It was wonderful. On Instagram, I talked about a different amazing black woman every day, focusing on lesser known movers and shakers throughout history. I only read books penned by black women. These women are/were incredible. They have been the backbone of this country for centuries. Well, not just this country, but that’s a much longer story. They deserve far more recognition than they have ever gotten. For as much as I knew before that month, I learned so much more. It started amazing conversations, which I would have never had otherwise. I expanded my mind and my heart. I love being a nerdy blogger because my focus is on educating myself and pushing others to do the same. I read books about a variety of things from memoirs by comediennes to novels to nonfiction. You can’t know something until you know it, and there was so much I didn’t know. There is so much I don’t know. It’s why I keep reading: to educate myself, to be better, to do good in the world. 

I push a very intersectional feminist agenda. I didn’t have a huge following back then, but I knew from the beginning I wanted to use whatever my platform was to showcase incredible humans of diverse backgrounds and voices. Not to speak for them, but be a channel for which their voices could be heard or realized or found. It’s hard to know something you don’t know, which is why I try to showcase the divergent world in which we exist. It’s so easy to be caught in our own bubble, but outside our bubbles, a world seethes with an indescribable amount of individuality and intersection. We are all humans. Our existence is uniquely our own, but it also overlaps in so many fascinating ways. We are more alike than we are different. But it’s impossible to experience the unique overlapping of humanity trapped in our own spheres of being.  

That first year blogging and Instagramming was enlightening. Racism exists. It’s rampant. It’s horrible. It’s everywhere from our grandparents to the media to our own internal bias. For as much love and support as I received, I also encountered a great deal of dickweasels. I lost over 500 followers because I was highlighting black women. I heard “There are incredible white women too,” or “What about black men?” I wasn’t saying black women were better than anyone else. I was saying we, as humans, are all beautiful and fascinating, but let’s bear witness to an overlooked and left behind and oppressed group of people because they need and deserve love and acceptance and have the right to be seen. I may have lost 500 followers, who I didn’t want anyways if I’m being honest, but I gained over 1,000 new followers. I heard so many comments of support and awe. It’s not about the followers; it’s about what those numbers represent. Hatred exists in the world, but I have found kindness and compassion weighs heavier. People want a better world. People want to do better. People want to grow. People want to give and receive kindness.

This year for Black History Month, I’m not just focusing on women. I’m reading books by black authors. I won’t be highlighting a person every day because honestly, it was a lot of work and research, and my job has been keeping me very busy lately, and I don’t have the time. I truly wish I did. I hope to expand my mind and those of everyone who cares enough to follow along on this journey. I’m still completely baffled people care what I have to say, but if you’re listening – in this case, reading – I will be using my voice to raise awareness and advocate for change, peace, kindness, love, acceptance, tolerance, and a beautifully colorful world. Although, I try and do this all the time, so Black History Month really isn’t all that different than any other month. It’s just a more one directionally focused month.  

So far there are only seven books on the list, but I might try and sneak an eighth in there since there are eight book review days in February. If you haven’t noticed, I post every Tuesday and Thursday. Send me your recommendations if you have any!!! What I’m reading this month: 

The Black Book
Dapper Dan by Daniel R. Day
How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Becoming by Michelle Obama
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Charged by Emily Bazelon (It’s not by a black woman, but it does talk about an issue that affects the black community at much higher rates than white people.)

bisous und обьятий,
RaeAnna

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