The Heart of a Woman
Maya Angelou
 The Heart of a Woman takes place between 1957 and 1962, beginning shortly after the end of Angelou's previous autobiography, Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas. Angelou and her teenage son Guy have moved into a "houseboat commune in Sausalito". After a year, they move to a rented house near San Francisco. Singer Billie Holiday visits Angelou and her son there, and Holiday sings a song to Guy. Holiday tells Angelou, "You're going to be famous. But it won't be for singing". In 1959, Angelou and Guy move to New York City. The transition is a difficult one for Guy; Angelou is forced to protect him from a gang leader. No longer satisfied with performing in nightclubs, she dedicates herself to acting, writing, political organizing, and her son. On the invitation of her friend, novelist John Killens, she becomes a member of the Harlem Writers Guild. She meets other important African-American artists and writers, including James Baldwin, who would become her mentor. She becomes a published writer for the first time. Angelou becomes more politically active, participating in African-American and African protest rallies, including a sit-in at the United Nations following the death of Zaire's prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, that she helps organize. She meets Malcolm X, and is struck by his good looks and magnetism. After hearing Martin Luther King, Jr. speak, she and her friend, activist Godfrey Cambridge, are inspired to produce a successful fundraiser for King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), called Cabaret For Freedom. King names her coordinator of SCLC's office in New York. She performs in Jean Genet's play, The Blacks, with Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, and Cicely Tyson. In 1961, Angelou meets South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make. They never marry, but she and Guy move with him, first to London and then to Cairo, Egypt, where she plays "official wife to Make, who had become a political leader in exile". Their relationship is full of cultural conflicts; he expects her to be a subservient African wife, and she yearns for the freedom as a working woman. She learns that Make is too friendly with other women and is irresponsible with money, so she accepts a position as assistant editor at the Arab Observer. Eventually, Angelou and Make separate, but not before their relationship is examined by their community of friends. She accepts a job in Liberia. She and Guy travel to Accra, Ghana, where he has been accepted to attend college. Guy is seriously injured in an automobile accident, so she accepts a position at the University of Ghana and remains there while he recuperates. The Heart of a Woman ends with Guy leaving for college and Angelou remarking to herself, "At last, I'll be able to eat the whole breast of a roast chicken by myself."