Maya Angelou's books of poetry are widely admired best-sellers, though
not as critically acclaimed as her seven autobiographies. Angelou
(1928–2014), a prominent African-American writer, used everyday
language, the Black vernacular, Black music and forms, and sometimes
shocking language to explore themes of love, loss, and struggle against
oppression and hardship. Her poetry is not easily categorized, and has
been compared with musical forms including the blues. She studied and
began writing poetry at a young age, in part to cope with trauma, as she
described in her first and best-known autobiography, I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings. She became a poet after touring Europe in the cast of
Porgy and Bess and performing calypso music in nightclubs in the 1950s.
Her first volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I
Diiie (1971), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. In 1993, she recited
one of her best-known poems, "On the Pulse of Morning", at President
Bill Clinton's inauguration (pictured). Her poetry has not received as
much critical attention as her prose; this has been attributed to her
popular success and to critics' preferences for poetry as a written form
rather than a verbal, performed one.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_of_Maya_Angelou>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
202 BC:
Rebel leader Liu Bang was enthroned as Emperor Gaozu of Han
after overthrowing the Qin dynasty, the first imperial dynasty of China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_dynasty>
1897:
Ranavalona III, the last sovereign ruler of the Kingdom of
Madagascar, was deposed by a French military force.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranavalona_III>
1928:
Indian physicist C. V. Raman and his colleagues discovered what
is now called the Raman effect, for which he later became the first
Asian to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._V._Raman>
1975:
In London an underground train failed to stop at Moorgate
terminus station and crashed into the end of the tunnel, killing 43
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorgate_tube_crash>
1985:
The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army launched a
mortar attack on a Royal Ulster Constabulary station in Corry Square,
Newry, Northern Ireland, killing nine.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Newry_mortar_attack>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
compere:
(chiefly UK) A master of ceremonies in a television, variety or quiz
show. Also used more generally for any master of ceremonies.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/compere>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
The miracle is this The more we share... The more We have
--Leonard Nimoy
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Leonard_Nimoy>