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PBS News Hour

Remembering Maya Angelou’s iconic voice

Drawing on a childhood of abuse and segregation, writer and author Maya Angelou moved the nation. Works such as her 1978 poem, “And Still I Rise,” explored the effects of racism and sexism on personal identity, with a voice that married oral and written literary traditions. Jeffrey Brown discusses with Elizabeth Alexander of Yale University why the voice of Angelou resonates so profoundly.