In this volume, Angelou describes her struggles to support her young son, form meaningful relationships, and forge a successful career in the entertainment world.

[3] In Singin' and Swingin, Angelou examines many of the same subjects and themes in her previous autobiographies including travel, music, race, conflict, and motherhood.

[1] She also published two volumes of poetry: Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize,[5] and Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975).

[8] Writer Hilton Als calls Angelou, along with feminist diarirst Anaïs Nin, "pioneers of self-exposure, willing to turn a spotlight on their own sometimes questionable exploits and emotional shortcomings".

[10] According to Angelou, the book's title came from the rent parties of the 1920s and 1930s, where people would pay the host an inexpensive entry fee and then eat and drink throughout the weekend.

As critic Mary Jane Lupton stated: "The concept of the rent party helps describe Angelou's position ... She is a single mother from the South who goes to California and sings and swings for a living.

"[16] Because music is one of the book's themes, Angelou uses abbreviated verb endings in her title that reflect Black dialect and evoke the sound of a blues singer.

[19] The book's opening chapters find Maya concerned with, as Hagen asserts, "apprehension about her son, a desire for a home, and facing racial conflicts, and seeking a career".

At first she greets her white boss' offers of generosity and friendship with suspicion, but after two months of searching for evidence of racism, Maya begins to "relax and enjoy a world of music".

She gets a job dancing and singing at The Purple Onion, a popular nightclub in San Francisco; on the recommendation of the club's owners, she changes her name from Marguerite Johnson to the "more exotic"[24] "Maya Angelou".

When her contract expires, Maya goes to New York City to audition for a part opposite Pearl Bailey, but she turns down the offered role to join a European tour of Porgy and Bess.

Not Maya Angelou, the person of pretensions and ambitions, but me, Marguerite Johnson, who had read about Verona and the sad lovers while growing up in a dusty Southern village poorer and more tragic than the historic town in which I now stood.

[30] Lupton insists that all of Angelou's autobiographies conformed to the genre's standard structure: they were written by a single author, they were chronological, and they contained elements of character, technique, and theme.

[34] Scholar George E. Kent has placed Angelou in the long tradition of the African-American autobiography but insists that she has created a unique interpretation of the autobiographical form.

[36] When asked if she changed the truth to improve her story, she stated: "Sometimes I make a diameter from a composite of three or four people, because the essence in only one person is not sufficiently strong to be written about.

[37] Angelou's long-time editor, Robert Loomis, agrees, stating that she could rewrite any of her books by changing the order of her facts to make a different impact on the reader.

McPherson sees Singin' and Swingin' as "a sunny tour of Angelou's twenties",[41] from early years marked by disappointments and humiliation, into the broader world—to the white world and to the international community.

Angelou, writing from the point of view of "an aware and articulate black woman who does not hesitate to make racial generalizations",[43] divides her travel narrative into subgroups in Singin' and Swingin'.

[44] As a Black American, her travels around the world put her in contact with many nationalities and classes, expand her experiences beyond her familiar circle of community and family, and complicate her understandings of race relations.

"[47] Cudjoe states that in Singin' and Swingin', Angelou effectively demonstrates "the inviolability of the African American personhood",[48] as well as her own closely guarded defense of it.

As the story opens, a lonely Angelou finds solace in Black music, and is soon hired as a salesgirl in a record store on Fillmore Street in San Francisco.

[53] After learning of her grandmother's death, her reaction, "a dazzling passage three paragraphs long" according to Lupton,[56] is musical; not only does it rely upon gospel tradition, but is also influenced by African-American literary texts, especially James Weldon Johnson's "Go Down Death—A Funeral Sermon".

[59] The book is full of conflicts: in Angelou's marriage, her feelings between being a good mother and a successful performer, the stereotypes about other races, and her new experiences with whites.

"[60] In Singin' and Swingin', Angelou finds herself in a situation "very familiar to career women with children",[61] and is forced to choose between being a loving mother or a "fully realized person".

[39] As scholar Sondra O'Neale puts it, in this book Angelou sheds the image of "unwed mother" with "a dead-end destiny" that had followed her throughout her previous autobiography.

[62] The book has been called "a love song to Angelou's son"[38] even though she feels a deep sense of guilt and regret when she has to leave him to tour with Porgy and Bess, which prevents her from fully enjoying the experience.

[64] Kathryn Robinson of the School Library Journal predicts that the book would be as enthusiastically received as the earlier installments in Angelou's series, and that the author had succeeded in "sharing her vitality" with her audience.

[65] Linda Lipnack Kuehl of the Saturday Review, although she prefers the rhythm of Caged Bird, found Singin' and Swingin' "very professional, even-toned, and ... quite engaging".

Almeida of the Library Journal finds the book "a pleasant sequel",[67] one in which Angelou's "religious strength, personal courage, and ... talent" was apparent in its pages.

[69] Reviewer John McWhorter finds many of the events Angelou describes throughout all of her autobiographies incoherent and confusing, and in need of further explanation as to her motives and reasons for her behavior.