I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

[teen-maya]

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.

Maya Angelou

[teen-maya]

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes curl my back into loneliness.

Maya Angelou

[teen-maya]

Post-Modernism

Post-modernist writers used narratives and mixtures of reality and fantasy to expose social issues.  These often were from the point of view of an outsider or isolated individual.  Post-modern literature often relinquish social classes and rely on change.

[teen-maya]

Modernism

Modernist writers pursue the American dream through their work as it was hard to actually achieve in real life.  These authors saw America as THE place to be for success and a plethora of opportunity.

[teen-maya]

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism is the literary movement in which religion, philosophy, and faith in higher powers were being played with and exposed.  Spirituality and intuition are extremely important and lead the reader and writer alike to God.

[teen-maya]

Ten

Maya graduates high school and gives birth to her son.  She is terrified that she will hurt him so she doesn't touch him much and her mother takes care of him.  One night, Vivian puts Maya's baby in bed with Maya to show her that Maya's maternal instincts would kick in.  They did and Maya woke up holding her baby boy protectively.

[teen-maya]

Nine

Maya decides that she doesn't want to be a virgin anymore so she asks her neighbor to have sex with her.  They do and Maya gets pregnant.  Maya hides her pregnancy from her mother and her mother's boyfriend, Daddy Clidell, until a few weeks before she gives birth.

[transparentals-blog]

transparent obama (requested)

[teen-maya]

Eight

Maya becomes San Francisco's first black streetcar conductor after harassing the company with formal letters.  Her mother supports her and stays up late to pick Maya up from her shifts. 

[teen-maya]

Seven

While on her own, Maya joins a group of homeless teenagers and lives on the streets with them for a month.  Then she returns to live with her mother and Bailey in San Francisco.

[teen-maya]

Six

Maya's father takes her with him to Mexico, where he gets drunk, falls asleep, and Maya drives them back to the US  without a license.  After this, Maya and her father's fiancee have one final yelling match and Maya runs away.

[teen-maya]

Five

Maya spends the summer with her father and his fiancee in their home near Los Angeles.  Maya does not get along with her father’s fiancee and they fight, showing Maya’s growing confidence.

[teen-maya]

Four

Soon after, Maya and Bailey move to San Francisco to live with their mother, Vivian.  There, Maya goes to an integrated school.

[teen-maya]

Three

While back in Stamps, Bailey gets a job near the river.  One day he and his fellow workers witness a white police officer examining the dead body of a black man who had been lynched. 

[cherhorowiz-deactivated20150813]

History Meme: 3/10 Moments: I Have a Dream

I Have a Dream is a public speech by American activist Martin Luther King Jr.. It was delivered by King on August 28th, 1963, in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. 

(more)

find the whole speech here: (x)

[teen-maya]

Two

When Maya and Bailey stay with their mother's family in St. Louis, Bailey adjusts well and makes friends.  But Maya and Bailey have to return to Stamps when their mother's live in boyfriend rapes Maya.

[teen-maya]

One

After Maya’s parents divorce, she and her brother, Bailey, are sent to live with their father’s mother in Stamps, Arkansas.  There, grandma Annie quickly becomes Mamma to Maya and Bailey.