To celebrate Black History Month, every Music Monday will feature a prominent book by a black author. To start, we are creating a playlist for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. This award-winning novel and best seller is known for its coming of age themes and iconic language use.
The playlist starts with ‘”Ma” Rainey Black Bottom; for blues and moves through musical movement, including Jazz, Motown, finally to R&B with Rhianna and Beyoncé. This was done to reference the power, the coming of age nature portrayed in the book, and to indicate how Maya Angelou begins to take power over her life.