I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

"It’s one of the first poems I memorized for recitation, and when said aloud it’s especially powerful. The dichotomy of the carefree joy and the seething rage rubbing against one another stanza by stanza always felt — and continues to feel — like the perfect maddening definition of the human experience"

"A deeply personal story of the brutalization of a whole people in the world’s most important democracy. This is the first Angelou book that I read, when I was much younger, and to this day I am unable to compute the breathtaking immorality of her (people’s) circumstances. I still cannot even imagine enduring and surviving that kind of pain and violence and injustice. It is as relevant and important today as ever."

"This was the first autobiography that meant everything to me as a young survivor struggling to find voice and meaning through the overbearing darkness. Angelou did what great writers of memoir do; she let me know that I was not alone because someone else had been there and made it out to tell the truth."

"It was hard to choose which Maya Angelou work I wanted to include in this list, but I ultimately decided I wanted the one that her most definitive. This is the book that made her a voice to be heard. I was also tempted to include her book of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, for which she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize."