I Shall Not Be Moved

In this 1990 volume of 48 pages, you will read in lyrical verse everything you need to know about oppression of Black people, by one of our finest writers. Angelou herself, now 78, has risen above bigotry, but hasn't, nor shouldn't, forget about it. It is the black person's legacy ("These Yet to Be United States") and the white person's shame. Author of the highly-acclaimed autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," Angelou sings about slave days, "take me on, Virginia, loose your turban of flowers" and in "The Grandmothers" speaks the title words, "I shall not be moved," a peon to the bravery of the black woman and the cruelty she has endured since captivity. This book should be read by every schoolteacher to her Ghetto children.

I Shall Not Be Moved by Maya Angelou Is a collection of forty-eight pages of poems. I know little of Maya. Even the small exposure I have had to a few of her writings leaves me wanting to know more about what she is saying. I found this book of poems a new experience not only to feel her glowing smile and personality while feeling the movement of her lyrics, but also to try and see through her eyes items of importance. In her poem Me and My Work, I found I need to understand more than I already do. The last couple lines are..... "Yet the only thing I really don't need is strangers' sympathy. That's someone else's word for caring."

I have read every poem in this collection at least 50 times, no exateration, and they are great. One of these poems, Equailty, I have used for a high school poetry thesis, I made an "A". Even though this collection is from 1990 it is still update!