... to Oakland California as a 14-year-old to live with her mother again where she attended George Washington High School. She studied drama and dance at night and was a scholar at the California Labor School. As a young adult Maya had already begun displaying signs of her enormous potential ... worked a string of odd jobs to include, a cook, waitress, pimp and prostitute. She later met the renowned African American dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey with whom she formed the unsuccessful dance team ˜Al and Rita'. After her divorce in 1954 Angelou worked as a stage performer in clubs where ...

• Word Count: 884
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... messages. As with documentary photographs, both the creator and the intended audience of the material must be considered when interpreting the significance of a particular image. Most popular images of African-American women were originally created by Anglo-Americans and intended for a white audience with buying power, which was largely female. Throughout the 20th century, the cross section of both ... creators and audiences of popular images have changed and the business of commercial imagery itself has become a more sophisticated craft to the extent that contemporary stereotypes of Afr...

• Word Count: 1267
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... story begins with semi-orphanhood and ends with motherhood. Interpreting her quest for freedom and self-affirmation as representative of that of many African Americans and American women-especially black American women-she presents incidents from her life that illustrate conditions faced by many persons. In her ... types, and patterns of expression. She tells, for example, of bone-weary cotton pickers caught in economic enslavement within the general impoverishment of African Americans; a threat to Uncle Willie's life by the Ku Klux Klan; the complete segregation in Stamps, with its resu...

• Word Count: 1226
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate