Quote by Maya Angelou: “You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies.”

This is a declaration to those who would erase or distort someone's story: even if history is written against you, with false narratives and cruelty, it cannot extinguish who you truly are. The poem that follows insists on survival and rising despite every attempt to bury its speaker.

Angelou published 'Still I Rise' in her 1978 collection And Still I Rise. The poem emerged during an era when Black women's voices were gaining increasing visibility in American literature, even as racial and gender discrimination remained pervasive in American society.

American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist whose 1969 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings brought her international recognition. She delivered her poem 'On the Pulse of Morning' at President Clinton's 1993 inauguration, becoming one of the most celebrated American writers of the twentieth century.