WHY MAYA ANGELOU PARTNERED WITH HALLMARK: For one thing, she liked a challenge

• Published in: Humanities (Washington) Vol. 42; no. 1; pp. 42 - 45
• Main Author: Hardison, Ayesha K
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington Superintendent of Documents 01.01.2021
• Subjects: African American Culture; Angelou, Maya (1928-2014); Autobiographies; Collaboration; Females; Greeting cards; Handwriting; Interviews; Literary Genres; Oral Tradition; Periodicals; Poetry; Sex crimes; Teaching Methods; Writers; Writing; Writing Instruction; Writing Processes; United States > US
• ISSN: 0018-7526; 1555-0532

Billy Collins, then U.S. Poet Laureate and a fellow Random House writer, questioned Angelou's partnership with Hallmark, the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States and, among the literati, commonly associated with trite expressions. Buyers' comments testified to joblessness, divorce, sexual assault, and suicidal thoughts in an effort to make evident to Hallmark, who reported to Angelou, the positive impact of her products. Angelou raised funds for Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights organization; her role as Kunta Kinte's grandmother in the miniseries Roots was nominated for an Emmy; she and her poem "Phenomenal Woman" were featured in John Singleton's film Poetic justice. The two-sentence epigram, the hallmark of the greeting card, was a new genre for her to master.