Advantages: Deep feelings, empathy, sadness ; Everyone needs a little bit now and then
Disadvantages: No Illustrations other than the written word.

...I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS.... The day that I picked this book up, I was around nineteen years old. I read the title and knew, yes knew, exactly why the caged bird sings --if he can find the voice to do so. At nineteen = my age then-- people had hardly heard of or knew of Maya Angelou. Yet there was something about this title that drew me to the book. Was my life filled with so much sadness in the past that whenever it called out to m e in book titles? I suspected the book was one of sadness & I'd not read any of the blurbs about it. So I came to this book unpredjudiced as far as deciding what this book would be or was about. Seems that lots of this book is about Maya . (She was raped in real life and she suffered tremendously), and I'm guessing that some of these writings have come from real-life experiences... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: It's a wonderful display of Maya's talent
Disadvantages: None

...Maya Angelou's versatility is evident in her CV: Mother, dancer, filmmaker, activist, editor, writer and friend of Oprah. Her poetry is rich and full, with incredible rhythm, and for want of another cliche, paints beautiful colours with her words. My favourate is 'A zorro man' which illustrates this: Here in this wombed room silk purple drapes flash a light as subtle as your hands before love making Here in the covered lens I catch a clitoral image of your general inhabitation This book is published by Virago (a publishing company run entirely by women and for women) and at £9.99 is an absolute bargain for so many poems. Maya Angelou has written a series of 5 autobiographical books about living as a black child and woman in America. In 'My Arkansas' she tells of the ignorance there: Today is yet to come in Arkansas. It writhes... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: excellent read
Disadvantages: may not be everybody's taste

...'I know why the caged bird sings' is a fantastic book by Maya Angelou. It is on the A-Level reading list so I was forced to read it when I was 17. The book is an auto-biography written by an African American woman. This seemed like something I'd have little in common with so therefore would hate. However I was wrong. Angelou is an amazing writer, and can describe people and scenes in brilliant detail. The book begins with her as a small child, doing as she was told whilst adults cotton-picked. She is a good, law abiding girl who goes to church when she is told. She has the family problems you would expect from most who write an autobiography, but her life is particluarly difficult. She reached me with the way she portrayed her relationships with those around her, particularly her love for her brother, the only person she felt... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Wonderful, Inspirational poetry.
Disadvantages: She does not use much of the technical forms or devices of poetry.

...I know why the caged bird sings. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ For those of you who have not heard of her,Maya Angelou is an inspirational poet, and universally acclaimed. She has the ability with her words, to cut through the race, class divide. Her poetry is elegant and fiery, her rhythms are captivating, and her words stunning and poignant. She reaches through to the very soul of the reader. Proud and strong, she tells of the bondage of the black race, of the need to be free, and to be heard. Her poetry is spiritually uplifting, and full of hope. It is also extremely motivational. An example of the trapped spirit of Maya longing for her freedom is to be seen in this Poem. This is one of my... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Refreshing blend of modern and classic poems
Disadvantages: 101 poems still isn't enough ...

...', 'Escape Routes' to 'Toothache'. Again, like the first anthology, the poems are written by classic and contemporary poets alike. W B Yeats, Kahlil Gibran, DH Lawrence and Rudyard Kipling's lines jossle for position alongside Alice Walker, Sophie Hannah and Maya Angelou. If you, like me, aren't a huge poetry fan, but enjoy 'dabbling' with the odd poem or poet, then this is a fun place to dabble!... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: TOP TEN POEMS
Disadvantages: ...or songs? NONE

...Top Ten Poems ... a challenge at the very least .. I will try to answer that ...challenge I will add some 'songs' to this list of top ten poems just because I feel they are appropriate for this challenge. . I like In My Daughter's Eyes -Martina McBride Stanyon Street - Rod McKuen Coney Island of the Mind - Ferlinghetti [more than one poem] I Hope You Dance - Lee WomacK America I Am Woman - Reddy Life Uncommon - Jewel Time - Enya The Impossible - Nichols It'll Come Back-- Red Sovine Okay, Okay , I can hear everyone yelling , "HEY but those are songs" Well not all of them Stanyon Street and Coney Island of the Mind are poems and a book of poems and every song is a poem of some sort I love the poetry of Walt Whitman and Rudyard Kipling and the poetry of Maya Angelou Still I Rise, and love the poetry... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Classic album tracks, amazing covers, huge range
Disadvantages: Only the cardboard cover if you prefer plastic!

...Ben Harper is an inspirational singer who uses music as a medium through which he can divulge his strongly held views. His influences (as you will be able to tell from the album) are many and vaired: a soulful rendition of "Sexual Healing" contrasts with a riproaring cover of Led Zep's 'Whole Lotta Love'. The album is made up of two CDs neither of which can lay claim to being superior. Both show off the diversity of Harper's music as well as driving into the conciousness of the listener his powerful polemics. Rather aptly the second CD finishes with the thought provoking adaptation of postcolonial poet Maya Angelou, 'I'll Rise'. I saw Harper perform this at Brixton Academy to 2000 people without a microphone whilst performing the black power salute. It was testament to the fire that burns within him and was redolent of all... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: autobiographical account from a famous author, interesting read
Disadvantages: emotionally hard to read in places

...Growing up in 1930s America isn’t easy when you’re a young Black girl. Marguerite Johnson lives with her grandparents and older brother Bailey in the town of Stamps, a heavily Black-White segregated place where everybody knows their place. A brief stay with her mother results in Marguerite being raped by her Mother’s boyfriend. Returning to Stamps, her way of coping is retreat into a world of muteness. The book follows the next few years of Marguerite’s life as she comes to terms with what happened to her and the person that she becomes. The book is an autobiographical account of Maya Angelou’s childhood so the impact it makes is stronger as you know that every word is true. It is a short book as it only covers Marguerite’s life between the ages of three and sixteen but what struck me was that within this relatively short space... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Beautiful writing by a distinguished female voice
Disadvantages: Difficult story, incomplete biography

...I'd heard of Maya Angelou, of course, but had never read any of her work, other than a few poems here and there. I knew of her as a towering figure in American letters, a multi-faceted woman who excelled in both poetry and prose. So I picked up "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," partly because I wanted to get a sense of her life and what shaped her, and partly because I was intrigued by the title. This book is simultaneously a gripper and a tough read. The author had a difficult life: Shuttled between her mother's home in St. Louis and her grandmother's in Stamps, Arkansas, at a time in American history when blatant racism was the order of the day, Marguerite Johnson, her given name, belonged nowhere. She and her brother Bailey, whom she adored, were too much for her mother to handle alone, so she shipped them off to Stamps, where... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Janet Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Great Poetry by Maya Angelou, Janet's Hat & Hairstyle.
Disadvantages: Some may be offended by the bad language.

...Wahey, Ciao have finally added my second favourite film ever to their database, so it's only fitting that I should write the first review! ** Technical Stuff. ** Year: 1993. Director: John Singleton. Time Running: 105 minutes. Certificate: 15. ** DVD Features. ** * Director's Commentary. * Director & Cast Filmographies. * Trailers. ** Cast. ** Justice - Janet Jackson. Lucky - Tupac Shakur. Iesha - Regina King. Chicago - Joe Torry. Jessie - Tyra Ferrell. Markell - Q-Tip. (from A Tribe Called Quest.) Poetry by Maya Angelou. ** Plot. ** The plot centers around Justice, a young Cosmetologist in South Central L.A, who see's her boyfriend Markell get shot and killed at the drive-in cinema one night. Justice escapes the rioting that is going on around her by writing poetry, but really she is lonely, living in an empty house with her cat... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful