The original essays in this set examine Maya Angelou's pivotal work from several perspectives. One essay discusses the historical events that surround Angelou's life: the civil rights, black power, and black arts movements as well as the emergence of black women's literature. Another provides a survey of the major pieces of criticism on Caged Bird, paying special attention to the book's early reception and how it fits in the autobiographical genre and the history of slave narratives, as well as issues of race, gender, aesthetics, and identity. The third essay discusses the struggle for black identity through readings of both Caged Bird and James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk.