A Love Letter to Maya Angelou

 In Maya Angelou's "The Heart of a Woman," concepts of maturity, love, and motherhood are explored through highly descriptive writing. While reading her memoir, I felt like I could visualize exactly what was happening in the scenes she describes, making it clear what type of music she would use as the soundtrack for her book. Angelou writes herself to be an extremely thoughtful and classy woman, so many of the songs included in this playlist uphold the same perception. 

1. A Sunday Kind of Love - Ella Fitzgerald 

A classic (if I may say so, myself). This song emulates the idea that every woman craves a love that is both rewarding and long-lasting. Throughout the memoir, Angelou becomes seriously romantically involved twice, so she becomes the recipient of love in many different ways. As Fitzgerald pleads, "I want a Sunday kind of love/ A love to last past Saturday night..." the desire to have one person to rely on and to love is highlighted, which is a theme that Angelou explores through her romantic relationships. But as the song continues, "Can't seem to find somebody, someone to care..." the tragedy of love is brought to mind. Although Angelou spends a bulk of the novel chasing around her partner, Make, she never truly settles down. She realizes that he does not hold her to the same level of respect that she needs, which is seen when  Angelou moves her and her son to Cairo (and later Ghana) to live with Make, who quickly orders her to cook, scolds her when the food is not prepared to his standard, and will not let her get a job. She becomes trapped, understanding that the love she has wanted for so long has become the cage she can't escape. 

2. Autumn in New York - Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong

Another Ella Fitzgerald song because Maya Angelou is committed. She is committed to her morals that she fights hardly to uphold, to the people she welcomes into her life (like her friends and romantic partners), and to her son, Guy, who she tries her best to build a good life for. In many regards, Maya Angelou is never living stagnantly. She is either constantly moving from place to place (California to New York to Cairo to Ghana just within the five-year period that this memoir is written), or she is chasing after dangerous goals such as the play she participates in that heavily critiques white people (during the 1960s) and the protest she plans that is even too extreme for Malcolm X. But the constant in her life, the one person who never leaves, is her son. And she does everything in her power to protect his happiness and safety. "Autumn in New York" describes, " Glittering crowds and/ shimmering clouds/ In canyons of steel/ They're making me feel I'm home." And this is what Angelou gave her son. He was never without his mother, someone who pointed out the beauty in their ever-changing lives. New York became a home for Guy and Maya Angelou but only because of Angelou's ability to make it one. The song embodies this ability and how it characterizes Angelou throughout the memoir. Regardless of the struggles she has in her own life, she never fails to make room for her son. 

3. New York, New York - Frank Sinatra

This song choice likely speaks to itself. With many of the major plot points in her memoir taking place here, New York is clearly the central location of the book. Angelou journeys here to make her show-bizz and Broadway dreams become a reality, just as the song encompasses. Sinatra dreams, "These little-town blues/ Are melting away/ I'll make a brand new start of it/ In old New York." With Angelou's attempts to be successful on off-Broadway shows and during gigs she would desperately book, the idea of New York being a place where anything is possible is prevalent in the memoir, and the setting itself is representative of what motivates Angelou to fight so hardly for her beliefs. She finds a community of people who have the same desires as her, so Frank Sinatra's melody speaks volumes to the potential that New York offers, especially as the setting of Angelou's book. 

4. Dancing in the Street - Martha Reeves & The Vandellas 

As a way to describe Angelou's goal to be strong for her son, "Dancing in the Street" relates to Angelou's motherhood. Regardless of the many struggles in her love and occupational life, Angelou never fails to be there for her son, which is a goal that sets the mood for the majority of the memoir. The song describes, "All we need is music, sweet music/ There'll be music everywhere/ There'll be swingin', swayin' and records playing/ And dancing in the street." The mood throughout the book is almost always grim, but during Angelou's moment's shared with Guy, there are undertones of relentless love. For example, when Guy is in trouble with a young gang leader, Angelou does not hesitate to do everything she needs to protect him, even driving up to his school and living in a friend's apartment to ensure that he is okay. The memoir develops a theme of love that is not only supported by Angelou's romantic involvements, but her deep motherly love for her son. "Dancing in the Street" showcases the playful mood that at times, the book takes on. Although it isn't often, Angelou perpetuates a theme of optimism when she is with her son. 

Phrase of the week: sickness. So, maybe not a phrase, but something I am feeling very deeply.