Maya Angelou Read online

  Maya Angelou

  Maya Angelou

  The Iconic Self

  MARY JANE LUPTON

  Copyright © 2016 by ABC-CLIO, LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

  The author and the publisher gratefully acknowledge permission for use of material from Mary Jane Lupton’s interview (“Talking with an Icon”) with Maya Angelou on June 16, 1997.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Lupton, Mary Jane.

   Maya Angelou : the iconic self / Mary Jane Lupton. — Second edition.

    pages cm

   Includes bibliographical references and index.

   ISBN 978-1-4408-3758-6 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-4408-3759-3  1. Angelou, Maya—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Women and literature—United States—History—20th century. 3. African Americans in literature. I. Title.

   PS3551.N464Z7578 2016

   818’.5409—dc23   2015032345

  ISBN: 978-1-4408-3758-6

  EISBN: 978-1-4408-3759-3

  20 19 18 17 16 1 2 3 4 5

  This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook.

  Visit www.abc-clio.com for details.

  Greenwood

  An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC

  ABC-CLIO, LLC

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  This book is printed on acid-free paper

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  1. The Life and Works of Maya Angelou

  2. The Genre of Autobiography

  3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970)

  4. Gather Together in My Name (1974)

  5. Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas (1976)

  6. The Heart of a Woman (1981)

  7. All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986)

  8. A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002)

  9. In Memoriam

  Bibliography

  Index

  Acknowledgments

  Without the support of the late Dolly A. McPherson, professor of English at Wake Forest University, the first edition of this book, Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion, might not have been realized. I first met Professor McPherson at a conference of the Mid-Atlantic Writers’ Association held in Baltimore in 1990. Her book, Order Out of Chaos, published in that same year, was the first book-length study of Angelou’s autobiographical works. McPherson, a long-time personal friend of Angelou’s, had supported my work since that conference and had offered assistance on numerous occasions. Through her, Maya Angelou became aware of my interest in her autobiographies. Through her, I was finally successful in arranging an interview.

  I am deeply grateful to Maya Angelou for her writings, her vitality, and her kindness. I thank her for being so gracious to me and my husband, Kenneth H. Baldwin, on the afternoon and night of June 16 and the morning of June 17, 1997. My husband, then chair of the English department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, though extremely busy, still had the time to offer substantial support: counting words and citations at several stages in the manuscript, shopping for groceries, dealing with computer repairs, checking the Internet, driving me to Winston-Salem. I am grateful for his love, reassurance, and tolerance, especially during the final three months of the initial project.

  To my daughters and their families—Julia on the West Coast and Ellen on the East—I am thankful for the phone calls, the questions, the encouragement. Of the friends who encouraged me in pursuing the field of Black Studies, I am indebted above all to my mentor, Harry L. Jones (1924–1997), professor emeritus of Morgan State University. I am also grateful to Aimee Wiest who, since we first met in the early 1970s, has always affectionately supported my writing. She was with me during my first exhilarating but brief meeting with Maya Angelou in 1995, following her lecture at Towson State University. Aimee, sensing my hesitation at the prearranged interview, literally pushed me into Angelou’s waiting limousine.

  Many friends, colleagues, and graduate students at Morgan State University contributed to this project, among them John Clarke, Eugenia Collier, Shirley Meckler, Jennifer Kreshtool, Linda Meyers, Margaret Reid, Valerie Sedlak, Ella Stevens, Minnie Washington, and Elaine Tsubota. I am also grateful to my students in English 102, who for almost a decade had been writing their research papers on I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, sharing their insights and anger and forcing me to be clear about my assumptions.

  I wish to acknowledge the following women from North Carolina: Mildred Garris and Alma M. Golden of Dr. Angelou’s office at Wake Forest University; Rose Johnson, who welcomed Ken and me when we visited her aunt, Maya Angelou; Sharon E. Snow, curator at the Wake Forest Library; and Joyce Ford.

  I am indebted to Dr. Earl Richardson, past president of Morgan State University, for having granted me a sabbatical for the fall semester of 1997 so that I could complete my study of Angelou’s autobiographies. I wish also to thank Kathleen Gregory Klein, the editor of the Greenwood Critical Companion Series. Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion, initially published in 1998, was part of that series, which has since been discontinued.

  I retired from Morgan State University in 2001. Maya Angelou: The Iconic Self was written in the resort town of Cape May, New Jersey, a beautiful location but far from the support of an academic community. I have made numerous changes in this expanded revision, from a few overlooked errors in spelling, punctuation, and dates to major additions to the text in order to include Maya Angelou’s literary and cultural contributions since 1998. Maya Angelou: The Iconic Self retains the structure of the original: two introductory chapters followed by individual chapters on each of the autobiographies. Each of the individual discussions ends with an alternative reading. The new edition is more attentive to her poetry. There is an added chapter about the sixth autobiography as well as a greatly expanded bibliography. The Iconic Self also takes into account the enormous public response to her death.

  Fortunately, I was able to rely on the skills, talents, and encouragement of my scholarly family as I wrote this second edition. My daughter Ellen Lupton is director of the MFA program in Graphic Design at the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore and Curator of Contemporary Design at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. Ellen worked closely with me on June 11, 2015, as we viewed the Maya Angelou Archives at the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She has also offered invaluable technical assistance.

  My daughter Julia Reinhard Lupton, associate dean of research, School of Humanities, the University of California, Irvine, worked diligently with me on downloading, file-saving, electronic editing, and other technical problems that I had not encountered while writing the first edition. She served as the liaison between me and my editor at Greenwood/CLIO, Kimberly Kennedy-White. Through their combined help I was able to acquire a Word document of the first edition from which I could make the necessary additions and revisions.

  Throughout this writing my husband, Kenneth H. Baldwin, has listened to my interpretations, done extensive proofreading, searched the Internet, offered pertinent criticism, suggested revisions, and entertained me with his amazing wit. When he retired from his position as chair of the English department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, in 2006, I jokingly provided him with a scholarship to att
end real estate school. He soon became qualified as an instructor and began teaching courses, primarily to brokers. Eventually he founded the Cape Atlantic School of Real Estate in Seaville, New Jersey, where his students affectionately call him “Doc.”

  I thank Steven Fullwood, assistant curator of the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books division of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, for his invaluable assistance prior to my visit to the Schomburg Center on June 11, 2015. During our visit his staff worked tirelessly in providing box after box of papers, drafts, and documents relevant to Maya Angelou’s life and writing.

  I thank Dolan Hubbard, my former chair at Morgan State University, and Carolyn Maun, director of Graduate Studies in English at Wayne State University, for putting me in touch with Sandra Shannon, editor of the College Language Association Journal. Professor Shannon personally invited me to contribute an essay on Angelou’s poetry for a commemorative issue on Maya Angelou, now in press. Cheryl Wall, guest editor of the Special Issue on Angelou, subsequently invited me to read a paper on Angelou’s poetry at the CLA conference in Dallas in April 2015.

  I am deeply indebted to Kim Kennedy White, senior acquisitions editor, American Mosaic, ABC-CLIO, for having immediately responded to my query about a possible second edition of Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion. I sent her a proposal, which she submitted to the advisory board. The board acted quickly and favorably, granting me a very reasonable amount of time to complete the project.

  I thank Victoria Allen, the widow of Julian Allen, for granting permission to use her husband’s illustration of Maya Angelou for the cover of this book. I thank my brother and sister-in-law, Jack and Carol Ann Hohman, for having gifted me with Maya Angelou’s cookbook Halleluljah! The Welcome Table on Christmas Eve, 2004. I thank Caroline Maun for the Angelou wind chimes and Charlotte Todd for the Maya Angelou greeting card. I thank my friends from Baltimore, and most particularly Jo-Ann Pilardi, for sending me information on Maya Angelou and for encouraging me in this project.

  Finally, I thank my friends in Cape May (especially Penny and Dale Hardin and Joan Thomas) and my friends at Macedonia Baptist Church (especially Lois Smith, Florence Carter, Jackie and Larry Hogan, Peggy Ose, and Pastor Kathy Smallwood Johnson) for their support and tolerance.

  Chapter 1

  The Life and Works of Maya Angelou

  Maya Angelou: The Iconic Self examines the six autobiographical volumes of noted African American writer Maya Angelou. Although all of these volumes are distinct in style and narration, they are unified through a number of repeated themes and through the developing character of the narrator. In their scope they stretch over time and place, from Arkansas to Africa to California to New York City, from confused child to accomplished adult. With so expansive a project, Angelou is required to de-emphasize the standard autobiographical concern for the individual and to focus on her interaction with others: with the jazz singer Billie Holiday; with the actor Godfrey Cambridge; with the African American community in Ghana; with the writer James Baldwin; with the world leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

  Maya Angelou, in having created these six autobiographies, has assured herself a prominent place in American literature. She has expanded the scope of the typical one-volume book about the self, creating a slightly fictionalized saga that covers the years 1931 to 1968—from the years of the Great Depression to the days following the death of Martin Luther King. She guides the reader through almost 40 years of American and African American history, revealed through the point of view of a strong and affectionate black woman. By opening up the edges of her narrative, Maya Angelou, like no one before her, transcends the autobiographical tradition, enriching it with contemporary experience and female sensibility.

  Information about Angelou’s abundant life has been recorded in numerous interviews, journals, yearbooks, prefaces, and appendices. At times there are errors or inconsistencies among these sources—the date of her first marriage, the names of awards received, the titles of plays directed, and other details. These inconsistencies arise possibly because Angelou, in her interviews, speaks eloquently but informally about her past, with no time chart in front of her, and possibly because her interviewers are so taken by her presence that they lose sight of the smaller details. The bulk of the facts presented in this chapter derive from the sources listed in the bibliography, under the category Biographical Sources. The remaining material is taken either from Angelou’s published writings or from my interview with her in June 1997.

  The Icon Interview

  When I agreed to write Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion, I knew the project would benefit from a personal interview, itself an autobiographical form. I was privileged to have met Angelou before, very briefly, in a rather dramatic limousine encounter after a lecture she gave at Towson State University in Baltimore in 1995. A return invitation, where we might really talk, seemed improbable. Nonetheless, I began writing to her press agent. After several false starts, and with the invaluable intervention of my friend Dolly A. McPherson of Wake Forest University, I was eventually granted an overnight interview that began at 4 p.m. on June 16, 1997, and ended the next morning.

  My husband, Kenneth Baldwin, drove us to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We arrived at Maya Angelou’s gated property and were greeted by Rose Johnson, who I later learned was the daughter of Maya’s brother Bailey. Ms. Johnson escorted us to an enormous living room and asked us to wait.

  Across the room, a forty- or fifty-foot expanse, I saw a portrait of Maya Angelou as a young woman, done on a vibrant quilt, with the center panel surrounded on all sides by what appeared to be lettering. This focal piece of art was almost as tall as the space it occupied, I would guess around twelve feet. Coming closer, I read the inscription: Maya’s Quilt of Life, 1989/Faith Ringgold. Faith Ringgold (1930–) is an African American artist and performer, well known for her woman-oriented sculptures such as the “Family of Women” series, done in the 1970s. Her astounding Quilt of Life was commissioned by Maya Angelou’s close friend, television talk-show host Oprah Winfrey (1954–) on the occasion of Angelou’s sixtieth birthday.

  The multitude of words framing the portrait were taken from “Phenomenal Woman,” probably Angelou’s most admired poem, and from “Willie,” a poem about the crippled uncle immortalized in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In addition there were excerpts from two of her autobiographies, The Heart of a Woman and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

  Soon after we sat down, Angelou entered the room in a rush of floor-length electric blue, with a matching blue turban decorated with gold spangles. She graciously invited Ken to stay for the interview session, which he did—but without participating. Although the investigation of form and structure in the autobiographies was at the heart of the interview, there were numerous personal moments involving husbands, cigarettes, houses, health food, aging, and family. At times she broke into song. I did not perceive Maya Angelou to be a stranger. Having read her autobiographies made me feel as if she were a high school classmate or a friend from church.

  It became clear, as the interview progressed, that Dr. Angelou was worried, distracted. Ominously in the background as we talked was the tragic, inexplicable burning of Betty Shabazz, prominent civil rights worker and the widow of Malcolm X, whose apartment was set on fire by her troubled grandson. On the day of the interview Maya Angelou made arrangements to fly to New York City, where she, Coretta Scott King, and other friends were planning to visit Betty Shabazz in the hospital. Sadly, Shabazz died seven days later, on Monday, June 23, 1997.

  Maya Angelou: The Iconic Self has been immeasurably enhanced by the interview of June 16, 1997. The figures of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X described in the fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes of the autobiography became personalized, intensified. Angelou’s approach to her unique serial genre was clarified. Thanks to her direct and thoughtful responses, the text of our recorded interview serves as a major source for this work, indicated parenthetically by “Ico
n.” An icon is a sacred image or representation, something of special value within a culture. In 1998 the “Icon” interview was published separately, in a shortened and modified form, in 2twice, a journal for the arts, under the title “Autobiography Maya Angelou.”

  I refer to my interview as “Icon” because of an amusing event that occurred when Angelou was acting in the film How to Make an American Quilt (1995). Members of the cast—Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Jean Simmons, Kate Nelligan, Lois Smith, Alfre Woodard, Winona Ryder, and Maya Angelou—were all sitting around when the two young actresses, Winona Ryder and Alfre Woodard, said that their friends had asked them, “What does it feel like to work with icons?”

  “We laughed so hard. So I named them the iconettes,” Angelou said to me, barely able to suppress her laughter.

  For me, it was sacred to have talked with an icon and to have luxuriated in her voice, if only for a day.

  Life

  Dr. Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, and died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on May 24, 2014, at the age of eighty-six. Like many of the great African American writers who predeceased her—Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin—Angelou never earned a college degree. Instead, her advanced education was achieved through what she described as the “direct instruction” of African American cultural forms: “If you’ve grown up in an environment where the lore is passed on by insinuation, direct instruction, music, dance, and all other forms of instruction, then that is still the thing out of which you have to move” (“Icon” 1997).

  It is part of her genius that she was virtually self-educated, although she did do some work in writing groups where self-criticism was an essential form of the learning process. Because of her accomplishments in writing, theater, and the arts, and because of her known strengths as a commencement speaker, academic institutions have granted her honorary doctorates. In 1975, Smith College and Mills College conferred on Angelou her first two honorary degrees; reportedly more than fifty were conferred during her career, including one in 1997 from Wake Forest University, where she held a lifetime appointment as First Reynolds Professor from 1981 to her death. Many of her admirers still call her by her honorary title, Dr. Angelou, a distinction with which she had seemed happy.