Literary Focus: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Title: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Author: Maya Angelou
Purchase: Barnes and Noble 

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is Maya Angelou’s autobiographical memoir first published in 1969. The book burst open a door to black expression that the black community, and American society as a whole, deserved and needed. Veronica Chambers (an author of her own memoir Mama’s Girl) wrote an article published in the January/ February 2020 issue of Smithsonian Magazine entitled “Published 50 Years Ago ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ Launched a Revolution.” In the article, Chambers shines a light on the societal impact of the book when it was originally released, as well as today. She shares that

Part of the reason the book continues to resonate is that it is, and always has been, more than a memoir of one woman’s life. It has emerged as a blueprint for our times—presaging and encompassing everything from the #MeToo movement to self-care to the question of how to stand at the end of a tumultuous decade and look forward with hope.

Please enjoy reading the full article at smithsonianmag.com.