All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, published in 1986, is the fifth book in African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou's seven-volume autobiography series. Set between 1962 and 1965 and taking its title from a Negro spiritual, the book begins when Angelou is thirty-three years old, and recounts her time in Accra, Ghana. It starts where her previous book, The Heart of a Woman, ends, with the traumatic car accident involving her son Guy, and ends as she returns to America. Angelou (pictured in 2013) upholds the long tradition of African- American autobiography, and at the same time makes a deliberate attempt to challenge the usual structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre. As in her previous books, it consists of a series of anecdotes connected by theme. She depicts her struggle with being the mother of a grown son, and with her place in her new home. Angelou examines many of the same subjects and themes of her previous autobiographies, including motherhood, the parallels and connections between the African and American parts of her history and character, and racism.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_God%27s_Children_Need_Traveling_Shoes
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
414:
Aelia Pulcheria proclaimed herself regent over her brother Theodosius II and made herself Augusta and Empress of the Eastern Roman Empire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulcheria
1776:
In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing that the thirteen American colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence
1862:
In a rowing boat on the River Thames from Oxford to Godstow, author Lewis Carroll told Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that would eventually form the basis for his book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland
1943:
The aircraft carrying Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile, crashed, killing him and fifteen others, leading to several conspiracy theories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C5%82adys%C5%82aw_Sikorski%27s_death_controversy
2012:
CERN announced the discovery of the Higgs boson elementary particle after a 40-year search for its existence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_for_the_Higgs_boson
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
auteur: A creative artist, especially a film director, seen as having a specific, recognisable artistic vision, and who is seen as the single or preeminent ‘author’ of their works. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/auteur
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
   Thou warden of the western gate, above Manhattan Bay, The fogs of doubt that hid thy face are driven clean away: Thine eyes at last look far and clear, thou liftest high thy hand To spread the light of liberty world-wide for every land. ... Oh, come as comes the morn. Serene and strong and full of faith, America, arise, With steady hope and mighty help to join thy brave Allies. O dearest country of my heart, home of the high desire, Make clean thy soul for sacrifice on Freedom’s altar-fire: For thou must suffer, thou must fight, until the warlords cease, And all the peoples lift their heads in liberty and peace. --Henry van Dyke https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_van_Dyke