Still I Rise Lesson Plan

How does Maya Angelou both make the speaker of "Still I Rise" both seem like an individual speaking to the audience and a universal voice of different groups of oppressed peoples?

Throughout the poem, Angelou (who is generally considered to be the speaker of the poem) offers personal, almost intimate details about her own identity, sense of self, and connection to her emotional and literal oppressors. At the same time, she consistently connects her own individual experiences to those of the broader African-American and female community, connecting to broader historical issues of slavery, racial discrimination and violence, and sexual objectification and exploitation of...