A childhood marked by years of silence, then a voice that became a tool for repair.

Her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings established a new way to narrate memory and emancipation.

She read “On the Pulse of Morning” at the 1993 inauguration, bringing poetry into a major civic moment.

Dance, song, writing, and activism speak to one another in a coherent body of work. Her language gives shape to dignity.