Maya Angelou passes on at 86

Maya Angelou — one of America’s most famous poets — died last night in a Winston-Salem, North Carolina hospital while recovering from a mystery sickness.

Angelou was recovering from an “unexpected ailment” that sent her to the hospital. She died with family by her side.

In a Facebook post yesterday, she said doctors had advised her not to travel … forcing her to cancel a planned trip to Houston … where Maya was to be honored Friday with the Beacon of Life Award at Major League Baseball’s Civil Rights Game.

She has received more than 30 honorary degrees from universities around the world.

Her most famous book — “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” — was also her most controversial.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the 1969 autobiography about the early years of African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou. The first in a seven-volume series, it is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how strength of character and a love of literature can help overcome racism and trauma. The book begins when three-year-old Maya and her older brother are sent to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother and ends when Maya becomes a mother at the age of 16. In the course of Caged Bird, Maya transforms from a victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a self-possessed, dignified young woman capable of responding to prejudice.

Angelou was challenged by her friend, author James Baldwin, and her editor, Robert Loomis, to write an autobiography that was also a piece of literature. Reviewers often categorize Caged Bird as autobiographical fiction because Angelou uses thematic development and other techniques common to fiction, but the prevailing critical view characterizes it as an autobiography, a genre she attempts to critique, change, and expand.

The book covers topics common to autobiographies written by Black American women in the years following the civil rights movement: a celebration of Black motherhood; a critique of racism; the importance of family; and the quest for independence, personal dignity, and self-definition.

Angelou uses her autobiography to explore subjects such as identity, rape, racism, and literacy. She also writes in new ways about women’s lives in a male-dominated society. Maya, the younger version of Angelou and the book’s central character, has been called “a symbolic character for every black girl growing up in America”.

Angelou’s description of being raped as an eight-year-old child overwhelms the book, although it is presented briefly in the text. Rape is used as a metaphor for the suffering of her race. Another metaphor, that of a bird struggling to escape its cage, is a central image throughout the work, which consists of “a sequence of lessons about resisting racist oppression”.

Angelou’s treatment of racism provides a thematic unity to the book. Literacy and the power of words helps young Maya cope with her bewildering world; books become her refuge as she works through her trauma.

Caged Bird was nominated for a National Book Award in 1970 and remained on The New York Times paperback bestseller list for two years. It has been used in educational settings from high schools to universities, and the book has been celebrated for creating new literary avenues for the American memoir. However, the book’s graphic depiction of childhood rape, racism, and sexuality has caused it to be challenged or banned in some schools and libraries.

Oprah Winfrey has called Angelou her mentor — they met while Oprah was working in local news in Baltimore in the 80s.

Dr. Maya Angelou’s wisdom has inspired countless people around the world, but what does she say is the best advice she’s ever given? Find out what it is and to whom she gave it. Plus, get the best advice Dr. Angelou ever received.

Angelou was one of the most inspiring poets of our time — most famously saying, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”