Still I rise

Poetry

Still I Rise

Quickwrite

Where does your voice come from: your family, your culture, your beliefs, your friends, and/or your experiences? What would you like to use your voice for, now or in the future?

Maya Angelou is one of the most influential voices of our time. However, she had a turbulent childhood: . -Her parents' divorced -she was sent to live with her grandmother in racially divided Stamps, Arkansas, -she experienced the brutality of racial discrimination. As a result, she went mute for nearly six years, refusing to speak. When Maya was 13, she moved to San Francisco to live with her mother, where a teacher helped her regain her voice, her confidence, and her pride. She went on to become an author, an actress, a journalist, a civil rights worker, and a teacher, using her voice for positive change.

VIDEO

The Poem we will read was written by Maya Amgelou during the Civil Rights movement

Still I Rise

VIDEO

Speaker

The voice you "hear" when you read a poem is the voice of the poem's speaker. The speaker's point of view is not necessarily the same as the poet's.

Audience

The audience of a work is the listeners and intended readers of a writing.