For November 20th, the Central Library Brown Baggers read and discussed “I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings” published in 1969  by Maya Angelou.  This title is the first of seven titles in her autobiographical series so a good place to start!  For most of our readers, it was their first time reading Angelou.

The story starts in 1930s era Stamps, Arkansas where Maya (age 3) and her older brother Bailey (age 4) were sent by their parents to live with their paternal grandmother. Grandma (Momma) runs a general store, a tight ship at home and is well-regarded by her community. Her primary customers are black cotton pickers. While Momma didn’t openly express love, she showed her caring and gave Maya her formative example of strength and character.

So what did we think? Our readers appreciated the exquisite writing, use of language and phraseology.  Readers could tell the writer was a poet.  “Each chapter felt like a pearl in a string.”

This book is a frequently banned book.  Initially it may have been due to racial issues, but more recently due to sexual concerns.  Angelou writes about being sexually assaulted as a child by her mother’s boyfriend during a time when such abuse was not openly shared and later she writes of her explorations of lesbianism. 

We discussed what we thought the title might mean–Angelou was caged by both her race and gender.