This series highlights the influence of poet Maya Angelou on Gomes. Gomes borrows the title from Angelou’s 1993 children’s book Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, which paired the writer’s poetry with illustrations by Jean-Michel Basquiat. In the face of threats from “bad dogs,” “big ghosts,” and other fearsome obstacles, the poem’s narrator adamantly repeats the refrain, “Life doesn’t frighten me at all.” By titling her series of fabric-wrapped birdcage sculptures after this phrase, Gomes ascribes to her works a similar sense of defiance, courage, and levity conveyed by Angelou’s poem.