Maya Angelou and Still I Rise movie review (2016) | Roger Ebert (2024)

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Maya Angelou and Still I Rise movie review (2016) | Roger Ebert? ›

At least with its wide scope, “Maya Angelou and Still I Rise” shows that her time on Earth was about more than being an author, poet, civil rights activist, a mother, a dancer, a singer, a film director, producer, journalist and much more. Her life was poetry itself.

Still I Rise” is primarily about self-respect and confidence. In the poem, Angelou reveals how she will overcome anything through her self-esteem. She shows how nothing can get her down. She will rise to any occasion and nothing, not even her skin color, will hold her back.

This poem is about racial legacy, struggle, and overcoming obstacles. Angelou talks about being born in oppression and how she never gave up and stood resilient against her oppressors. The frequent use of the words "I'll rise" show her determination and resilience.

Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise" is a powerful poem that draws on a range of influences, including her personal background and the African American experience in the United States. Its message of liberation and survival was a consistent theme in Angelou's work.

Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, who went on the air together for the first time in 1975, have been off the air for a long time now. Siskel died in 1999, and Ebert bowed out in 2011, two years before his death. But, for many people, they remain the very exemplars of film criticism.

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells. Pumping in my living room. The speaker describes how she struts with a sense of pride and power that could be associated with the kind of wealth generated by oil.

In the poem “Still I Rise” there are thoughts black feminism depicting African-American women who courageous and eager to rise above the discrimination of the white American majority. They want to show the world that they are amazing, strong, and cannot be underestimated.

Departing from the quatrain structure, the final fifteen lines of the poem repeat the refrain "I rise." Angelou emphasizes that she and others have emerged from the "huts of history's shame" that encapsulate the mistreatment of black people throughout time.

With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt. But still, like dust, I'll rise. These lines indicate that an antagonistic relationship exists between the speaker and the “you” she addresses. But even as the speaker confronts this “you” for the harm they have done, she also powerfully defies them.

thighs…” However, an idiom is also used in lines 3 and 4 “… having a diamond at the meeting of my thighs…” it shows how she valued herself gender wise being a female. In stanza 8 line 1, Maya the poet reiterated that she rose out of huts of history's shame.

Why was Maya Angelou mute for 5 years? ›

Returning to her mother's care briefly at the age of seven, Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend. He was later jailed and then killed when released from jail. Believing that her confession of the trauma had a hand in the man's death, Angelou became mute for six years.

For this portrait of her timeless example, work, wisdom, grace, and witness, “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise” receives a Peabody Award.

In 1952, she married a Greek sailor named Anastasios Angelopulos. When she began her career as a nightclub singer, she took the professional name Maya Angelou, combining her childhood nickname with a form of her husband's name. Although the marriage did not last, her performing career flourished.

Sometime ago, I heard that Roger Ebert's wife, Chaz, talked about Roger's last words. He died of cancer in 2013. “Life is but a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

On April 4, 2013, one of America's best-known and most influential movie critics, Roger Ebert, who reviewed movies for the Chicago Sun-Times for 46 years and on TV for 31 years, dies at age 70 after battling cancer.

In this poem, Angelou's speaker talks with the racist people. She refers to them as “you” and straightforwardly begins this poem. This “you” can also be a reference to those who try to subjugate others for their benefit. What does 'Still I Rise' say about the African American spirit?

Theme is the lesson or message of the poem. Does the poem have something to say about life or human nature? That message would be the theme, and there can be more than one theme for a single poem, even something as short as 'We Real Cool'!

The message that the poem conveys to us is that we must be generous and unselfish and think of others. We must try to help others who are not as experienced as we are.

Her words made people feel alive, electrified. Her words spoke to the power of women everywhere. Published in the late summer of 1978, “Still I Rise” has become a well-loved gem of both African-American and feminist literature.