brief biography maya angelou

Maya Angelou

Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar Maya Angelou was a world-famous author. She was best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.

On April 4, 1928, Marguerite Ann Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Due to her parents’ tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce, Angelou went to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas at an early age. Her older brother, Bailey, gave Angelou her nickname “Maya.”

Returning to her mother’s care briefly at the age of seven, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. He was later jailed and then killed when released from jail. Believing that her confession of the trauma had a hand in the man’s death, Angelou became mute for six years. During her mutism and into her teens, she again lived with her grandmother in Arkansas.

Angelou’s interest in the written word and the English language was evident from an early age. Throughout her childhood, she wrote essays, poetry, and kept a journal. When she returned to Arkansas, she took an interest in poetry and memorized works by Shakespeare and Poe.

Prior to the start of World War II, Angelou moved back in with her mother, who at this time was living in Oakland, California. She attended George Washington High School and took dance and drama courses at the California Labor School.

When war broke out, Angelou applied to join the Women’s Army Corps. However, her application was rejected because of her involvement in the California Labor School, which was said to have Communist ties. Determined to gain employment, despite being only 15 years old, she decided to apply for the position of a streetcar conductor. Many men had left their jobs to join the services, enabling women to fill them. However, Angelou was barred from applying at first because of her race. But she was undeterred. Every day for three weeks, she requested a job application, but was denied. Finally, the company relented and handed her an application. Because she was under the legal working age, she wrote that she was 19. She was accepted for the position and became the first African American woman to work as a streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Angelou was employed for a semester but then decided to return to school. She graduated from Mission High School in the summer of 1944 and soon after gave birth to her only child, Clyde Bailey (Guy) Johnson.

After graduation, Angelou undertook a series of odd jobs to support herself and her son. In 1949, she married Tosh Angelos, an electrician in the US Navy. She adopted a form of his surname and kept it throughout her life, though the marriage ended in divorce in 1952.

Angelou was also noted for her talents as a singer and dancer, particularly in the calypso and cabaret styles. In the 1950s, she performed professionally in the US, Europe, and northern Africa, and sold albums of her recordings.

In 1950, African American writers in New York City formed the Harlem Writers Guild to nurture and support the publication of Black authors. Angelou joined the Guild in 1959. She also became active in the Civil Rights Movement and served as the northern coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a prominent African American advocacy organization

In 1969, Angelou published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , an autobiography of her early life. Her tale of personal strength amid childhood trauma and racism resonated with readers and was nominated for the National Book Award. Many schools sought to ban the book for its frank depiction of sexual abuse, but it is credited with helping other abuse survivors tell their stories.  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has been translated into numerous languages and has sold over a million copies worldwide. Angelou eventually published six more autobiographies, culminating in 2013’s Mom & Me & Mom.   

She wrote numerous poetry volumes, such as the Pulitzer Prize-nominated  Just Give me a Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971), as well as several essay collections. She also recorded spoken albums of her poetry, including “On the Pulse of the Morning,” for which she won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album. The poem was originally written for and delivered at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. She also won a Grammy in 1995, and again in 2002, for her spoken albums of poetry.

Angelou carried out a wide variety of activities on stage and screen as a writer, actor, director, and producer. In 1972, she became the first African American woman to have her screen play turned into a film with the production of Georgia, Georgia . Angelou earned a Tony nomination in 1973 for her supporting role in Jerome Kitty’s play Look Away , and portrayed Kunta Kinte’s grandmother in the television miniseries Roots in 1977.

She was recognized by many organizations both nationally and internationally for her contributions to literature. In 1981, Wake Forest University offered Angelou the Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. President Clinton awarded Angelou the National Medal of Arts in 2000. In 2012, she was a member of the inaugural class inducted into the Wake Forest University Writers Hall of Fame. The following year, she received the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for outstanding service to the American literary community. Angelou also gave many commencement speeches and was awarded more than 30 honorary degrees in her lifetime.

Angelou died on May 28, 2014. Several memorials were held in her honor, including ones at Wake Forest University and Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. To honor her legacy, the US Postal Service issued a stamp with her likeness on it in 2015. (The US Postal Service mistakenly included a quote on the stamp that has long been associated with Angelou but was actually first written by Joan Walsh Anglund .) 

In 2010, President Barack Obama awarded Angelou the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. It was a fitting recognition for Angelou’s remarkable and inspiring career in the arts.

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. (New York: Random House, 1969). Angelou, Maya. Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration. (New York: Doubleday, 2008).

“Poet – Maya Angelou.” Academy of American Poets. Accessed August 8, 2017. https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/maya-angelou

Brown, Emma. “Maya Angelou, Writer and Poet, dies at age 86.” The Washington Post, May 28, 2014. Accessed August 8, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/maya-angelou-writer-and-poet-dies-at-age-86/2014/05/28/2948ef5e-c5da-11df-94e1-c5afa35a9e59_story.html?utm_term=.408fffb9a82c

Brown , DeNeen L. “Maya Angelou honored for her first job as a street car conductor in San Francisco.” The Washington Post, March 12, 2014. Accessed August 8, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2014/03/12/maya-angelou-honored-for-her-first-job-as-a-street-car-conductor-in-san-francisco/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.92c836957f2f

“About Harlem Writers Guild.” Harlem Writers Guild. Accessed August 10, 2017. http://theharlemwritersguild.org/about.html

Moore, Lucinda. “Growing Up Maya Angelou.” Smithsonian.com, April 2013. Accessed August 8, 2017. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/growing-up-maya-angelou-79582387/

Nixon, Ron. “Postal Service Won’t Reissue Maya Angelou Stamp.” The New York Times, April 8, 2017. Accessed August 8, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/us/postal-service-wont-reissue-maya-angelou-stamp.html

“History.” Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Accessed August 10, 2017. http://nationalsclc.org/about-us/history/

Thursby, Jacqueline S. "Angelou, Maya (4 Apr. 1928–28 May 2014), writer, performer, and activist." American National Biography. 29 Nov. 2018; Accessed 7 Dec. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.013.00700

“Dr. Maya Angelou.” National Book Foundation. Accessed December 7, 2021. https://www.nationalbook.org/people/dr-maya-angelou/#fullBio

MLA - Spring, Kelly. “Maya Angelou." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2017. Date accessed.

Chicago - Spring, Kelly. "Maya Angelou." National Women's History Museum. 2017. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/maya-angelou.

Photo Credit:  MAYA ANGELOU, circa 1976. Courtesy: CSU Archives / Everett Collection. 

Angelou, Maya. Just Give me a Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie . (New York: Bantam, 1976).

Angelou, Maya. Mom & Me & Mom . (London: Virago, 2013).

“THE INAUGURATION; Maya Angelou: 'On the Pulse of Morning’.” The New York Times, January 21 1993.  http://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/21/us/the-inauguration-maya-angelou-on-the-pulse-of-morning.html Classroom Posters:

• Maya Angelou Classroom Poster (11x17 in) | Maya Angelou Classroom Poster (24x36 in)

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Biography Online

Maya Angelou Biography

You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

– Maya Angelou from ‘Still I rise’

Short biography Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou (original name Marguerite Johnson) was born April 4, 1928, in St Louis, Missouri.

Despite the inequities of her life as a child, Maya Angelou was able to provide a positive message of humanity and hope. Maya Angelou said that “The honorary duty of a human being is to love.”

“ Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies old memories of pleasure ancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.”

From: Touched By An Angel

Maya Angelou married a South African freedom fighter and for a time lived in Cairo where she was the editor of the Arab Observer. However, in the 1960s she returned to America and played a role in the civil rights movement. She was asked to work on behalf of Presidents Carter (National Commission on the observance of International Women’s Year) and President Ford (American Revolutionary Bicentennial Advisory Council).

As well as being a poet and writer, Maya Angelou had a productive career in TV and film. She wrote several prize-winning documentaries such as Afro-Americans in the Arts .

The popularity of Maya Angelou has in large part been due to her ability to write about the many experiences of life with a vivid and engaging style that absorbs the reader. As Sidonie Ann Smith states from Southern Humanities Review:

“Her genius as a writer is her ability to recapture the texture of the way of life in the texture of its idioms, its idiosyncratic vocabulary and especially in its process of image-making.”

In the 1960s, she was active in the civil rights movement, coming into contact with both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King . She was the northern leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). With Malcolm X, she helped to form the new Organization of African American Unity. She was devastated after both King and Malcolm X were assassinated in the late 1960s.

In the late 1960s , she published an influential autobiography, which spoke of her experiences growing up:  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings  (1969). It is considered an important work for giving a personal voice to African American women. She went on to write seven autobiographical works.

She has also been active in film and television. Dr. Angelou wrote the Pulitzer-winning screenplay and composed the score for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia.

After reciting a poem ‘ On the Pulse of the Morning’  at Bill Clinton’s inauguration, she became one of the best known African-American authors, and sales increased significantly. Her works have also received criticism for depicting sexually explicit scenes and violence. However, her books remain on many school syllabuses.

Dr. Angelou received over 50 honorary degrees and was for a time Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.

Dr. Maya Angelou passed quietly in her home on May 28, 2014.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Biography of Maya Angelou ”, Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net 26 Jan. 2011. Updated 26 June 2017.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou

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Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. She was an author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. She was best known for her seven autobiographical books:  Mom & Me & Mom  (Random House, 2013);  Letter to My Daughter  (Random House, 2008);  All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes  (Random House, 1986);  The Heart of a Woman  (Random House, 1981);  Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas  (Random House, 1976);  Gather Together in My Name  (Random House, 1974); and  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings  (Random House, 1969), which was nominated for the National Book Award.

Among her volumes of poetry are  A Brave and Startling Truth  (Random House, 1995);  The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou  (Random House, 1994);  Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now  (Random House, 1993);  I Shall Not Be Moved  (Random House, 1990);  Shaker, Why Don't You Sing?  (Random House, 1983);  Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well  (Random House, 1975); and  Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie  (Random House, 1971), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

In 1959, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. From 1961 to 1962 she was associate editor of  The Arab Observer  in Cairo, Egypt, the only English-language news weekly in the Middle East, and from 1964 to 1966 she was feature editor of the  African Review  in Accra, Ghana. She returned to the United States in 1974 and was appointed by Gerald Ford to the Bicentennial Commission and later by Jimmy Carter to the Commission for International Woman of the Year. She accepted a lifetime appointment in 1982 as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1993, Angelou wrote and delivered a poem, "On The Pulse of the Morning," at the inauguration for President Bill Clinton at his request. In 2000, she received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2010 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

The first black woman director in Hollywood, Angelou wrote, produced, directed, and starred in productions for stage, film, and television. In 1971, she wrote the original screenplay and musical score for the film  Georgia, Georgia , and was both author and executive producer of a five-part television miniseries "Three Way Choice." She also wrote and produced several prize-winning documentaries, including "Afro-Americans in the Arts," a PBS special for which she received the Golden Eagle Award. Angelou was twice nominated for a Tony award for acting: once for her Broadway debut in  Look Away  (1973), and again for her performance in  Roots  (1977).

Angelou died on May 28, 2014, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she had served as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University since 1982. She was eighty-six.

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Biography of Maya Angelou, Writer and Civil Rights Activist

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Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928–May 28, 2014) was a celebrated poet, memoirist, singer, dancer, actor, and civil rights activist. Her autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," a bestseller published in 1969 and nominated for the National Book Award, revealed her experiences growing up as an African American during the Jim Crow Era . The book was one of the first written by an African American woman to appeal to a mainstream readership.

Fast Facts: Maya Angelou

• Known For : Poet, memoirist, singer, dancer, actor, and civil rights activist
• Also Known As : Marguerite Annie Johnson
• Born : April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri
• Parents : Bailey Johnson, Vivian Baxter Johnson
• Died : May 28, 2014 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Published Works : I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gather Together in My Name, The Heart of a Woman
• Awards and Honors : National Medal of Arts, Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Spouse(s) : Tosh Angelos, Paul du Feu
• Child : Guy Johnson
• Notable Quote : "My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style."

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her father Bailey Johnson was a doorman and navy dietitian. Her mother Vivian Baxter Johnson was a nurse. Angelou received her nickname from her older brother Bailey Jr., who couldn't pronounce her name so he called her Maya, which he derived from "my sister."

Angelou's parents divorced when she was 3. She and her brother were sent to live with their paternal grandmother Anne Henderson in Stamps, Arkansas. Within four years, Angelou and her brother were taken to live with their mother in St. Louis. While living there, Angelou was raped before she turned 8 years old by her mother’s boyfriend. After she told her brother, the man was arrested and, upon his release, was killed, probably by Angelou's uncles. His murder and the trauma surrounding it caused Angelou to be almost completely mute for five years.

When Angelou was 14, she moved with her mother to San Francisco, California. She took lessons in dance and drama on a scholarship to the California Labor School and graduated from George Washington High School. That same year, at the age of 17, she gave birth to her son Guy. She worked to support herself and her child as a cocktail waitress, cook, and dancer.

Arts Career Begins

In 1951, Angelou moved to New York City with her son and her husband Tosh Angelos so that she could study African dance with Pearl Primus. She also took modern dance classes. She returned to California and teamed with dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey to perform at African American fraternal organizations as “Al and Rita” throughout San Francisco.

In 1954, Angelou’s marriage ended but she continued dancing. While performing at San Francisco's Purple Onion, Angelou decided to use the name "Maya Angelou" because it was distinctive. She combined the nickname her brother had given her with a new last name she derived from her former husband's surname.

In 1959, Angelou became acquainted with novelist James O. Killens, who encouraged her to hone her skills as a writer. Moving back to New York City, Angelou joined the Harlem Writer’s Guild and began to publish her work.

About the same time, Angelou landed a role in a State Department-sponsored production of George Gershwin’s folk opera "Porgy and Bess" and toured 22 countries in Europe and Africa. She also studied dance with Martha Graham.  

The following year, Angelou met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , and she and Killens organized the Cabaret for Freedom benefit to raise money for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Angelou was appointed the SCLC’s northern coordinator. Continuing her performance career, in 1961 she appeared in Jean Genet’s play "The Blacks."

Angelou became romantically involved with South African activist Vusumzi Make and moved to Cairo, where she worked as an associate editor for the Arab Observer . In 1962, Angelou moved to Accra, Ghana, where she worked at the University of Ghana and continued to hone her craft as a writer, working as a feature editor for The African Review , a freelancer for the Ghanaian Times , and a radio personality for Radio Ghana.

While living in Ghana, Angelou became an active member of the African American expatriate community, meeting and becoming a close friend of Malcolm X. When she returned to the United States in 1965, Angelou helped Malcolm X develop the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Before the organization could really begin working, however, he was assassinated.

In 1968, while she was helping King organize a march, he, too, was assassinated. The death of these leaders inspired Angelou to write, produce, and narrate a 10-part documentary titled “Blacks, Blues, Black!”

The following year, her autobiography, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," was published by Random House to international acclaim. Four years later, Angelou published "Gather Together in My Name," which told about her life as a single mother and budding performer. In 1976, "Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas" was published. "The Heart of a Woman" followed in 1981. Sequels "All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes" (1986), "A Song Flung Up to Heaven" (2002), and "Mom & Me & Mom" (2013) came later.

Other Highlights 

In addition to publishing her autobiographical series, Angelou produced the film "Georgia, Georgia" in 1972. The following year she was nominated for a Tony Award for her role in "Look Away ." In 1977, Angelou played a supporting role in the Golden Globes-winning TV mini-series "Roots ."

In 1981, Angelou was appointed the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Then, in 1993, Angelou was chosen to recite her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton 's inauguration. In 2010, Angelou donated her personal papers and other items from her career to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture .

The following year, President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.

Maya Angelou had been having health issues for many years and was suffering from heart problems when she died on May 28, 2014. She was found by her caretaker at her home in Winston-Salem, where she had taught for a number of years at Wake Forest University. She was 86.

Maya Angelou was a trailblazer in achieving success in so many fields as an African American woman. Immediate respondents to her passing indicated the breadth of her influence. They included singer Mary J. Blige, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker , and President Barack Obama.

In addition to the National Medal of Arts presented by President Clinton and the Presidential Medal of Freedom presented by President Obama, she was given the Literarian Award, an honorary National Book Award for contributions to the literary community. Before her death, Angelou had been awarded more than 50 honorary degrees.

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Maya Angelou was born as Marguerite Johnson on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. Maya Angelou became one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. With over 50 honorary doctorate degrees Dr. Maya Angelou became a celebrated poet, memoirist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.

Going Home With Maya Angelou

Life Doesn’t Frighten Me

Mom & Me & Mom

Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

The Heart of a Woman

I Shall Not Be Moved

Gather Together in My Name

Even The Stars Look Lonesome

Letter to My Daughter

Rainbow in the Cloud

The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration

Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now

Hallelujah! The Welcome Table

Great Food, All Day Long

My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me

Maya’s World: Renee Marie of France

Maya’s World: Mikale of Hawaii

Maya’s World: Izak of Lapland

Maya’s World: Angelina of Italy

The Complete Poetry

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Amazing Peace

Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie

Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well

His Day Is Done

Phenomenal Woman

Celebrations

A Song Flung Up to Heaven

Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?

And Still I Rise

Still I Rise

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou

In the late 1950’s Maya Angelou joined the Harlem Writer’s Guild. With the guidance of her friend, the novelist James Baldwin, she began work on the book that would become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Published in 1970, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings received international acclaim made the bestseller list. The book was also banned in many schools during that time as Maya Angelou’s honesty about having been sexually abused opened a subject matter that had long been taboo in the culture. Later, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings would become a course adoption at college campuses around the world. With more than 30 bestselling titles, Maya Angelou has written 36 books.

MAYA ANGELOU

Poems & Poets

Maya Angelou

An acclaimed American poet, storyteller, activist, and autobiographer, Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri. Angelou had a broad career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood’s first female black director, but became most famous as a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet. As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She was also an educator and served as the Reynolds professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University. By 1975, wrote Carol E. Neubauer in Southern Women Writers: The New Generation, Angelou was recognized “as a spokesperson for… all people who are committed to raising the moral standards of living in the United States.” She served on two presidential committees, for Gerald Ford in 1975 and for Jimmy Carter in 1977. In 2000, Angelou was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton. In 2010, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S., by President Barack Obama. Angelou was awarded over 50 honorary degrees before her death. Angelou’s most famous work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), deals with her early years in Long Beach, St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas, where she lived with her brother and paternal grandmother. In one of its most evocative (and controversial) moments , Angelou describes how she was first cuddled then raped by her mother’s boyfriend when she was just seven years old. When the man was murdered by her uncles for his crime, Angelou felt responsible, and stopped talking. Angelou remained mute for five years, but developed a love for language. She read Black authors like Langston Hughes , W. E. B. Du Bois , and Paul Lawrence Dunbar , as well as canonical works by William Shakespeare , Charles Dickens , and Edgar Allan Poe . When Angelou was twelve and a half, Mrs. Flowers, an educated African American woman, finally got her to speak again. Mrs. Flowers, as Angelou recalled in her children’s book Mrs. Flowers: A Moment of Friendship (1986) , emphasized the importance of the spoken word, explained the nature of and importance of education, and instilled in her a love of poetry. Angelou graduated at the top of her eighth-grade class. Angelou attended George Washington High School in San Francisco and took lessons in dance and drama on a scholarship at the California Labor School. When Angelou, just seventeen, graduated from high school and gave birth to a son, Guy, she began to work as the first African American and first female street car conductor in San Francisco. As she explained in Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry like Christmas (1976), the third of her autobiographies , she also “worked as a shake dancer in night clubs, fry cook in hamburger joints, dinner cook in a Creole restaurant and once had a job in a mechanic’s shop, taking the paint off cars with my hands.” Angelou married a white ex-sailor, Tosh Angelos, in 1950. After they separated, Angelou continued her study of dance in New York City, returning to San Francisco to sing in the Purple Onion cabaret and garnering the attention of talent scouts. From 1954 to 1955, she was a member of the cast of a touring production of Porgy and Bess . During the late 1950s, Angelou sang in West Coast and Hawaiian nightclubs, before returning to New York to continue her stage career. Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild in the late 1950s and met James Baldwin and other important writers. It was during this time that Angelou had the opportunity to hear Dr. Martin Luther King speak. Inspired by his message, she decided to become a part of the struggle for civil rights. She was offered a position as the northern coordinator for Dr. King’s SCLC. Following her work for Dr. King, Angelou moved to Cairo with her son, and, in 1962, to Ghana in West Africa. She worked as a freelance writer and was a feature editor at the African Review. When Angelou returned to the United States in the mid-1960s, she was encouraged by author James Baldwin and Robert Loomis, an editor at Random House, to write an autobiography. Initially, Angelou declined the offers, but eventually changed her mind and wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The book chronicles Angelou’s childhood and ends with the birth of her son. It won immediate success and was nominated for a National Book Award. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first of Angelou’s six autobiographies. It is widely taught in schools, though it has faced controversy over its portrayal of race, sexual abuse and violence. Angelou’s use of fiction-writing techniques like dialogue and plot in her autobiographies was innovative for its time and helped, in part, to complicate the genre’s relationship with truth and memory. Though her books are episodic and tightly-crafted, the events seldom follow a strict chronology and are arranged to emphasize themes. Other volumes include Gather Together in My Name (1974), which begins when Angelou is seventeen and a new mother; Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry like Christmas, an account of her tour in Europe and Africa with Porgy and Bess; The Heart of a Woman (1981), a description of Angelou’s acting and writing career in New York and her work for the civil rights movement; and All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), which recounts Angelou’s travels in West Africa and her decision to return, without her son, to America. It took Angelou fifteen years to write the final volume of her autobiography, A Song Flung up to Heaven (2002). The book covers four years, from the time Angelou returned from Ghana in 1964 through the moment when she sat down at her mother’s table and began to write I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1968. Angelou hesitated so long to start the book and took so long to finish it, she told Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service interviewer Sherryl Connelly, because so many painful things happened to her, and to the entire African-American community, in those four years. “I didn’t know how to write it,” she said. “I didn’t see how the assassination of Malcolm [X], the Watts riot, the breakup of a love affair, then [the assassination of Dr.] Martin [Luther] King [Jr.], how I could get all that loose with something uplifting in it.” A Song Flung up to Heaven deals forthrightly with these events, and “the poignant beauty of Angelou’s writing enhances rather than masks the candor with which she addresses the racial crisis through which America was passing,” Wayne A. Holst wrote in Christian Century. Angelou was also a prolific and widely-read poet, and her poetry has often been lauded more for its depictions of Black beauty, the strength of women, and the human spirit; criticizing the Vietnam War; demanding social justice for all—than for its poetic virtue. Yet Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie, which was published in 1971, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1972. According to Carol Neubauer in Southern Women Writers, “the first twenty poems describe the whole gamut of love, from the first moment of passionate discovery to the first suspicion of painful loss.” In other poems, “Angelou turns her attention to the lives of black people in America from the time of slavery to the rebellious 1960s. Her themes deal broadly with the painful anguish suffered by blacks forced into submission, with guilt over accepting too much, and with protest and basic survival.” As Angelou wrote her autobiographies and poems, she continued her career in film and television. She was the first Black woman to have a screenplay ( Georgia, Georgia ) produced in 1972. She was honored with a nomination for an Emmy award for her performance in Roots in 1977. In 1979, Angelou helped adapt her book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, for a television movie of the same name. Angelou wrote the poetry for the 1993 film Poetic Justice and played the role of Aunt June. She also played Lelia Mae in the 1993 television film There Are No Children Here and appeared as Anna in the feature film How to Make an American Quilt in 1995.

One source of Angelou’s fame in the early 1990s was President Bill Clinton’s invitation to write and read an inaugural poem. Americans all across the country watched as she read “On the Pulse of Morning,” which begins “A Rock, a River, a Tree” and calls for peace, racial and religious harmony, and social justice for people of different origins, incomes, genders, and sexual orientations. It recalls the civil rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I have a dream” speech as it urges America to “Give birth again / To the Dream” of equality. Angelou challenged the new administration and all Americans to work together for progress: “Here, on the pulse of this new day, / You may have the grace to look up and out / And into your sister’s eyes, and into / Your brother’s face, your country /And say simply / Very simply / With hope—Good morning.” During the early 1990s, Angelou wrote several books for children, including Life Doesn’t Frighten Me (1993), which also featured the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat; My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me (1994), and Kofi and His Magic (1996), both collaborations with the photographer Margaret Courtney-Clark. Angelou’s poetry collections include The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994) and Phenomenal Woman (1995) , a collection of four poems that takes its title from a poem which originally appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1978. The poem’s narrator describes the physical and spiritual characteristics and qualities that make her attractive. Angelou also wrote occasional poems, including A Brave Startling Truth (1995), which commemorated the founding of the United Nations, and Amazing Peace (2005), a poem written for the White House Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. Angelou published multiple collections of essays. Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993) contains declarations, complaints, memories, opinions, and advice on subjects ranging from faith to jealousy. Genevieve Stuttaford, writing in Publishers Weekly, described the essays as “quietly inspirational pieces.” Anne Whitehouse of the New York Times Book Review observed that the book would “appeal to readers in search of clear messages with easily digested meanings.” Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997) is the sister volume, a book of “candid and lovingly crafted homilies” to “sensuality, beauty, and black women” said Donna Seaman in Booklist. Letter to my Daughter was published in 2008.

Angelou’s poetry often benefited from her performance of it, and during her lifetime Angelou recited her poems before spellbound crowds. Indeed, Angelou’s poetry can also be traced to African-American oral traditions like slave and work songs, especially in her use of personal narrative and emphasis on individual responses to hardship, oppression and loss. In addition to examining individual experience, Angelou’s poems often respond to matters like race and sex on a larger social and psychological scale. Describing her work to George Plimpton, Angelou said, “Once I got into it I realized I was following a tradition established by Frederick Douglass—the slave narrative—speaking in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always saying I meaning ‘we.’ And what a responsibility. Trying to work with that form, the autobiographical mode, to change it, to make it bigger, richer, finer, and more inclusive in the twentieth century has been a great challenge for me.” In 2013 she was the recipient of the Literarian Award, an honorary National Book Award for contributions to the literary community. She died in 2014 at the age of 86.

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Maya Angelou

Maker interview details.

• August 31, 2010
• Category: ArtMakers
• Occupation(s): Poet
• Born: April 4, 1928
• Birth Location: St. Louis, Missouri
• Favorite Color: All Colors
• Favorite Food: Chili
• Favorite Time of Year: All Seasons
• Favorite Vacation Spot: Home

Favorite Quote

"Sister, mama don't care what these people say that you must be an idiot or stupid or a moron cause you can't talk. Sister, mama know when you and the good Lord get ready, you're going to be a teacher. Sister, you're going to teach all over the world."

Poet, author, and professor Maya Angelou was born as Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri, to Bailey and Vivian Baxter Johnson. Angelou’s older brother, Bailey Jr., nicknamed her “Maya” when they were children. When Angelou was three years old, her parents divorced and sent her and her brother to live with their grandmother in the harshly segregated Stamps, Arkansas. Angelou and her brother moved back and forth between Stamps and St. Louis throughout their formative years. During World War II, Angelou attended George Washington High School and San Francisco’s Labor School, dropping out for a short while to work as the first Black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco, but eventually graduating at the age of seventeen. Three weeks after her graduation, she gave birth to her only son. Around 1950, Angelou, then a calypso dancer, changed her name from Marguerite Johnson to the more theatrical Maya Angelou. From 1954 to 1955, Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess, and three years later, she moved to New York City in order to concentrate on her writing career. Around the same time, she served as the Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) under Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1961, Angelou moved to Cairo, where she wrote for the weekly newspaper, "The Arab Observer", then to Ghana, where she taught at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama and worked as a feature editor for "The African Review". Angelou returned to the United States in 1964 to help Malcolm X build the Organization of African American Unity. Unfortunately, when Malcolm died, so too did the organization. In 1970, Angelou published her famed autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, for which she received a National Book Award nomination. This autobiography was followed by five other volumes, released in 1974, 1976, 1981, 1986, and 2002. Angelou’s first volume of poetry, "Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie," was published in 1971, and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize the next year. In 1981, Angelou returned to the South, where she became the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1993, she recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. The recipient of a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1973 Broadway play Look Away, Angelou was granted three Grammy Awards for her spoken word albums and an Emmy for her supporting role in the television miniseries "Roots." In 1998, Angelou was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. She was the recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008. Later in life, Angelou divided her time between Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Harlem, New York. She had one son, two grandsons, and two great-grandchildren. Maya Angelou passed away on May 28, 2014 at the age of 86.

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Maya Angelou: Facts & Related Content

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Did You Know?

• Angelou was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in "Look Away" (1963), despite the fact that the play closed on Broadway after only one performance.
• Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's presidential inauguration in 1993, becoming the second poet ever to read a poem at a presidential inauguration; the first was Robert Frost, who in 1961 recited "The Gift Outright" at John F. Kennedy's inauguration.

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The Interesting Life of Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was a writer, poet, and activist who defied categorization. Her life was a tapestry of triumphs and struggles, woven with words that captured the essence of human experience. She was known for her empowering verse, autobiographical works, and her role in advocating for women and African American writers.

Maya Angelou was an iconic writer known for her empowering verse , autobiographical works, and her role in advocating for women and African American writers. Angelou’s poetry was written in a direct, conversational tone that resonated with people from all backgrounds. The coveted poet, novelist, playwright, actor, director, and civil rights activist had many talents and won numerous accolades. Remarkably, she even won multiple Grammy awards and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

About Maya Angelou

• 1 Life Facts
• 2 Interesting Facts
• 3 Famous Poems
• 4 Early Life
• 6 Education
• 7 Literary Career
• 8 Writing Career and Relationships
• 9 Influence from other Poets
• 10 Civil Rights Movement
• Maya Angelou was born on 4th April 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri.
• Her full birth name was Marguerite Anne Johnson.
• Throughout her life, she published seven autobiographies as well as several books of poetry .
• Her first autobiography , ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ was published in 1969.
• Maya Angelou died in May 2014 after a period of bad health.

Interesting Facts

• In 1957 Maya Angelou recorded her first album, Miss Calypso.
• She performed on stage in the early 60s.
• In the mid-60s, she worked as an administrator at the University of Ghana and as a freelance writer for the Ghanaian Times.
• Angelou accepted the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where she was one of the only full-time African American professors.
• Angelou campaigned with Democratic candidates such as Hilary Clinton in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Famous Poems

• ‘ Still I Rise ‘ is a poem about confidence and empowerment. The speaker stands up to prejudice and preconceived notions of who she should be. She determines that she is valuable and deserving of respect. The refrain , “I rise” is used throughout, gaining intensity as the poem progresses. Towards the end, the speaker proudly states that she is leaving behind her own history and the “nights of terror and fear”. She is headed into the light, bringing with her the “gifts that [her] ancestors gave”.
• ‘ When Great Trees Fall ‘  is dedicated to loss and misery as integral parts of the human experience. Through the metaphor of a falling tree, the speaker talks about important losses that shake one’s life. In this case, the impact of the tree on the ground is felt throughout the forest. All the creatures shake and shudder. The lions “hunker down” and try to ride out the aftershocks. Maya Angelou’s speaker makes sure to address the fact that it doesn’t matter how large one is, physically or mentally, everyone is impacted by a loss. The poem ends optimistically as the speaker refers to the passing of the worst of these emotions and the possibility of peace blooming in one’s body. It might come slowly, but it brings comfort.
• ‘ Phenomenal Woman ‘ , like others on this list, is about empowering oneself. The speaker wants young women to go out into the world and “kick ass,” no matter who they are or what they look like. The speaker addresses the fact that she is “not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size” but society’s norms do not matter when addressing one’s worth. She can carry herself confidently, walking into a room “as cool as you please” and stand up to a man. In fact, she adds, they “swarm” around her like bees. No matter what anyone else says to her, she knows that she’s a “woman / Phenomenally”.
• ‘ On Aging ‘ is a short poem that is addressed to those who might feel pity for an aging speaker. She asks them not to chatter at her, as she’s listening to herself She doesn’t want their sympathy, or for people to think that she is less than who she was in the past. In fact, she tells the listener directly that she is “the same person [she] was back then, a little less hair, a little less chin”. But, she knows very well that she is “lucky” that she can still “breathe in”.
• ‘ Equality ‘ addresses the themes of equality and discrimination. Through the use of metaphors and the striking refrain, “equality and I will be free” Maya Angelou emphasizes a universal longing for equality. The speaker asks the listener to stop covering their ears and their eyes and see clearly that the speaker, and all those like her, have been crying, asking for change. Eventually, the repetition of the refrain takes on the rhythm of a heartbeat or drumbeat. It is pounding over and over again, driving the speaker forward as she seeks out equal freedoms.

Explore more Maya Angelou poems .

Maya Angelou was born on 4th April 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her full birth name was Marguerite Anne Johnson and her parents were Bailey Johnson, a dietician for the navy, and Vivian Johnson, a nurse. The name she would come to use, “Maya” came from her older brother, Bailey Jr. It is a slurred combination of “my-a” and “sister”.

When Angelou was still very young her parent’s marriage fell apart. They had never been happy together and when they separated, the young girl and her brother were sent, alone, by train, to live in Stamps, Arkansas with her paternal grandmother. Angelou’s grandmother had managed to make a good life for herself due to her ownership of a general store that prospered during the Great Depression. 

Angelou certainly had a lot of problems during her childhood. When Angelou was eight years old her father brought the children back to live with their mother. It was here that she was sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend. After building up enough courage, Angelou revealed what had been done to her, and he was jailed, but for only one day.

As soon as Angelou’s abuser was released he was murdered, likely by someone in the family. These traumatic events which occurred when she was still quite young, resulted in her becoming mute for five years. She would later explain that she blamed herself, and her voice , for the murder of her abuser. It is now thought that this time period was when she developed a true love for reading.

Maya Angelou was an African American poet, with her ancestry and heritage running firmly throughout her writing. In 2008, Maya took a DNA test , which revealed her ancestry: 55% of her ancestors came from West Africa while 45% came from the Congo-Angola region.

During the years of World War II, Angelou attended California Labor School, after studying at George Washington High School, and when she was 16 she became the first black female cable car conductor in San Francisco. Angelou gave birth to her first child, Clyde, one year later. Despite being clearly talented intellectually, due to her life circumstances, Angelou never attended college and instead dived straight into the world of work.

Literary Career

In the early 1950s, Angelou married Tosh Angelos who was an electrician and aspiring musician. It was also during this time period that she began taking dance classes. She performed at a number of different venues throughout San Francisco and made a name for herself as a cabaret dancer. She and her husband would later move to New York City where Angelou would study dancing styles from Africa, returning to San Francisco a year later. Her marriage was relatively short-lived with the couple divorcing in 1954.

The following years of the late 1950s saw Angelou touring throughout Europe with a production of an opera titled,  Porgy and Bess.  In 1957 she recorded her first album,  Miss Calypso.  The end of the decade saw her return to New York to focus on her writing career. While there she joined the Harlem Writers Guild and was published for the first time. She would go on to meet Martin Luther King Jr. and organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

While she was spending more time on her writing, Angelou was still dancing. She performed on stage in the early 60s and then moved to Cairo where she worked as an associate editor of  The Arab Observer.  In the mid-60s, she worked as an administrator at the University of Ghana and as a freelance writer for the  Ghanaian Times.  She returned to America in 1967 and spent time writing plays. Her first autobiography,  I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,  which became one of her most popular works, was published in 1969. It was the piece that brought her the recognition she had been searching for.

Writing Career and Relationships

In the later years of her life, her work in the film  Georgia, Georgia,  was filmed by a Swedish company, and became the first African American woman to write a screenplay. It was released in 1972. Angelou continued to work in all of her areas of interest. The writer also continued crafting articles, short stories , poetry, and autobiographical books—the second of which was published in 1974 and was titled,  Gather Together in My Name.  She also appeared in the television program,  Roots.  Angelou’s second marriage, to Paul du Feu, ended in 1983, a few years after she returned to the southern United States.

She also had close ties to high-ranking members of government, being appointed to the Bicentennial Commission by President Gerald Ford, and later selected by President Jimmy Carter to be on the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year.

It was in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at Wake Forest University, that she accepted the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. She was one of the only full-time African American professors on staff at the university. At this point in her life, Angelou was finally and fully recognized as an outstanding writer, in all mediums. She toured around the United States giving lectures from the 1990s until she was in her eighties. 

One event of note in her later life was the 1993 recitation of,  ‘On the Pulse of Morning’  at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. The recording of the poem actually got nominated for the ‘ Best Spoken Word Album’  at the 1993 Grammy Awards ceremony. She took home her first Grammy win that year, and secured her second in 1995 with her poem ‘Phenomenal Woman’. She was the first poet to make such an address since Robert Frost.

1993 continued to be an excellent year for Angelou, as well-respected literary critic Elsie B. Washington claimed that Maya was the “black women’s poet laureate”. This had a massive knock-on effect as the publishers of her works, Random House, saw a staggering 1200% increase in sales from the previous year. They achieved more sales just in January alone, than in all of 1992 combined. They even had to reprint over 400,000 copies of all her books just to match the incredible uptick in demand.

Angelou won many awards during her long, unique career. In 2013, she was given the Literarian Award, a National Book Award given to people who have contributed immensely to the literature. Along with this, in 2010, Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

With many strings to her bow, she even had a career as an actress, performing in plays and films alike. She earned a Tony Award nomination in 1973 for her performance in the Broadway play  Look Away .

The late 1990s and early 2000s saw Angelou campaigning with democratic candidates such as Hilary Clinton and making her directorial debut with her first film,  Down in the Delta.  Maya Angelou died in May 2014 after a period of bad health. Throughout her life, she published seven autobiographies as well as several books of poetry. Her essays were compiled into three books and she is credited in a number of plays and television shows throughout her long career.

Angelou was an inspiration and role model to those around her, not only through her accomplishments but due to her as a person. It was widely reported that she and Oprah Winfrey became very close friends and acted as her mentor at times. Oprah has publicly shown her gratitude for the positive influence she had on her.

Influence from other Poets

Maya Angelou was notably influenced by writers and activists such as James Baldwin, Langston Hughes , and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as James Weldon Johnson and Zora Neale Hurston. She was also heavily inspired by older works by William Shakespeare , Edgar Allan Poe , and Charles Dickins .

Civil Rights Movement

Famously, Maya Angelou and Martin Luther King Jr. became very close friends. Angelous described their relationship like they were siblings. Angelou said he had a “small, beautiful speaking voice,”, which reminded her of her brother, and that when King sat down in her office, she “became a little girl again.” King Jr. ended up giving her the role of northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. This was Angelou’s first step towards integrating into the Martin Luther King Jr. movement in the 1960s.

Maya Angelou is most famously known for her literary work as a poet. However, she was much more than that. She was a Poet, Singer, Dancer, Actress, Director, Novelist, Civil Rights activist, and Memoirist, just to name a few of the areas she delved into. She won and was nominated for a number of accolades and awards across these areas of interest. For example, she won two Grammys, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and was given the Presidential Medal for the Arts.

Maya Angelou went through a five-year spell of silence from the age of eight due to trauma. At the age of seven, Angelou was placed into the care of her mother. Sadly, her mother’s boyfriend raped her. After speaking out about the incident, the boyfriend was jailed for a short period of a day, then released. However, upon his release, he was murdered and Angelou believed that her speaking out had led to the loss of a man’s life, developing a self-hate for her voice . This resulted in her silencing her own voice for five whole years.

Maya Angelou came up with many iconic and very useful quotes. However, there is one that can resonate with anyone from any walk of life. She said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

Maya Angelou had a role in the Civil Rights movement during the 20th century. Famously, she became a close friend of Malcolm X, working with him. She also played a vital role in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1959, acting as the northern coordinator. This cemented her role in the Martin Luther King Jr. movement.

Maya Angelou is known for her autobiographical style of poetry in which she addresses many themes born from the struggles she herself had gone through during her life.

Throughout her interesting life, Maya Angelou lived in a number of different places. The most notable of these were; New York, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Stamps, Arkansas.

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National Museum of African Art - Smithsonian Institution

Biography of Maya Angelou

Maya angelou.

Born: Marguerite Johnson, April 4, 1928, St. Louis, Missouri Education: Attended public school in Stamps, Arkansas and San Francisco, California

PUBLICATIONS: AUTOBIOGRAPHIES RANDOM HOUSE & BANTAM BOOKS I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1970 – On February 26, 1995, Bantam Books congratulated Maya Angelou for being the first African-American to be the longest-running (2 years) on The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Best-seller list for 6 weeks in 1970 and again in 1993 after the Clinton Inauguration.

Gather Together In My Name, 1974. Singin’ And Swinging’ And Getting’ Merry Like Christmas, 1976. The Heart of A Woman, 1981 – In September 1997, USA Today’s “Best-Selling Book”, Jumped from #83 to #11 on The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Best-seller list and selected for Oprah Book Club.

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes, 1986 Best-seller list on The New York Times. A Song Flung Up To Heaven, 2002- Currently on The New York Times Best-Seller List for Hardcover Nonfiction.

MODERN LIBRARY The Complete Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou, released September 2004

PERSONAL ESSAYS RANDOM HOUSE & BANTAM BOOKS Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now, 1993 and 1994, on The New York Times Best-seller list. Even the Stars Look Lonesome, 1997 – Jumped from #79 to #22 on the extended list for The New York Times Paperback Nonfiction Best-seller list.

Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes, The New York Times Best-seller list September 2004

Letter to My Daughter, September 2008, The New York Times Best–seller list, October to December 2008

Great Food All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart, released December 14, 2010

Mom & Me & Mom to be released in April 2, 2013

CHILDREN’S BOOKS STEWART, TABORI & CHANG Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, 1993.

CLARKSON POTTER My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken and Me, 1994. Kofi and His Magic, 1996.

RANDOM HOUSE, 2004 Maya’s World: Izak of Lapland Maya’s World: Angelia of Italy Maya’s World: Renée Marie of France Maya’s World: Mikale of Hawaii

POETRY RANDOM HOUSE & BANTAM BOOKS Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diie, 1971 – Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well, 1975. And Still I Rise, 1978. Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing, 1983. Now Sheba Sings the Song, 1987 I Shall Not Be Moved, 1990. On the Pulse of Morning, Written at the request of William Jefferson Clinton for his Inauguration as the 42nd President of the United States, January 20, 1993. Published by Random House in March 1993 and was on The New York Times Best-seller list for 9 weeks.

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou 1994. Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems for Women, 1995 Best-seller list for The New York Times. A Brave and Startling Truth, Recited at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations, June 26, 1995; Published by Random House in October, 1995.

From a Black Man to a Black Woman, delivered at the Million Man March in Washington, DC, October 16, 1995.

Extravagant Spirits, written in May 1997 for Life Magazine’s Collector’s Edition

Amazing Peace, 2005. Read by her at the lighting of the Pageant of Peace, National Christmas Tree Ceremony at the White House on December 1, 2005. Best-seller list for The New York Times in 2005.

Mother, A Cradle to Hold Me, April 2006, Best-seller list for The New York Times. Celebrations, Rituals of Peace & Prayer, October 31, 2006, extended Best-seller list for The New York Times.

PLAYS Cabaret For Freedom, 1960 – Produced off-Broadway (in collaboration with Godfrey Cambridge). The Least of These, 1966 – Produced in Los Angeles. Gettin’ Up Stayed On My Mind, 1967. Ajax, 1974 – Produced in Los Angeles (Mark Taper Forum). And Still I Rise, 1976 – Produced in Oakland, California (Oakland Ensemble Theater). Moon On A Rainbow Shawl, 1988 – Produced in London (Author Errol John).

SCREENPLAYS Georgia, Georgia, 1972 – Produced by Cinerama, Sweden. All Day Long, 1974 – Produced by American Film Institute, Los Angeles.

ACTING TELEVISION APPEARANCES • Writer for Oprah Winfrey series “Brewster Place.” • PBS Documentaries: “Who Cares About Kids” & “Kindred Spirits” – • KERA-TV, Dallas, TX; “Maya Angelou: Rainbow in the Clouds” – WTVS-TV, • Detroit, MI “To the Contrary” – Maryland Public Television. Two plays for national viewing; • Tapestry and Circles; Directed in Hollywood, 1975. • Author of six national one half-hour programs; interviews and profiles; “Assignment America” premiered January 1975. • Ten one-hour programs (NET-TV) “Black, Blues, Black”; National • Education Television; written, produced and directed, 1968. • Ghanaian Broadcasting Corporation, Contributor, 1963-64. • “Afro-American in the Arts,” PBS Documentary • “Humanities Through the Arts,” 30 half-hour segments. • “Three Way Choice,” CBS Miniseries; Author/Executive Producer. • Sister, Sisters, NBC; 1982. • “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” movie, CBS; co-authored; 1979. • Two programs for the United States Information Agency; written and hosted; Part One: “The Legacy,” Part Two: “The Inheritors,” 1976. • Touched By An Angel “Tree of Life” episode, November, 1995. • “The Amen Corner” Chris/Rose Productions with Miramax (work-in-progress), 1999. • “Down in the Delta” weekly television series (work-in-progress), 1999. • Moesha, WB TV, August 30, 1999 • Runaway, CBS/Hallmark Movie, December 10, 2000 • “Madea’s Family Reunion,” movie, “Aunt May,” written, directed and produced by Tyler Perry with Reuben Cannon Lion’s Gate Film • “Celebration Table: Talking & Tasting with Maya Angelou,” 13 episodes, Hallmark Channel, airing 2012

FILMS & PLAYS PORGY AND BESS (George Gershwin) played Ruby in European tour, 1954-55. CALYPSO, Off-Broadway, 1957. THE BLACKS (Jean Genet) played White Queen Off-Broadway, 1960. THE BLACKS won the Obie Award in 1961 for the best Broadway play, both American and foreign). MOTHER COURAGE (Bertold Brecht), played title role Off-Broadway, 1964. MEDEA (Jean Anouilh) played Nurse in Hollywood. LOOK AWAY (Jerome Kilty) played Mrs. Keckley, Broadway, 1973. ROOTS (Alex Haley), played Nyo Boto (Grandmother), Hollywood, 1977. (Received Emmy Nomination for Best Supporting Actress). HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT, 1995, Universal Pictures. DOWN IN THE DELTA, 1998, Miramax Films, Directorial Film Debut. Released on Video June 1999.

RECORDINGS SCORES FOR THE LOVE OF IVY, Sidney Portier film MISS CALYPSO, 1957, Liberty Records GEORGIA, GEORGIA, 1972 ALL DAY LONG, 1974 MISS CALYPSO, 1996 SPOKEN WORD ALBUMS • THE POETRY OF MAYA ANGELOU, 1969 – GWP Records. • WOMEN IN BUSINESS, 1981 – University of Wisconsin. • BEEN FOUND, Music & Spoken Word Album with Ashford & Simpson, 1996.

CONTRIBUTOR OF ARTICLES, SHORT STORIES & POEMS TO THESE PERIODICALS: Black Scholar, Redbook Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Essence, Ebony Magazine, Cosmopolitan, California Living Magazine, Mademoiselle Magazine, Life Magazine, Ghanaian Times, Chicago Daily News, Sunday New York Times

ADDITIONAL WORKS THE TRUE BELIEVERS, a book of poems in collaboration with Abbey Lincoln. ALL DAY LONG, a collection of short stories

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS • Taught modern dance at The Rome Opera House and The Hambina Theatre in Tel Aviv. • Was the Northern Coordinator for The Southern Christian Leadership Conference – appointed by the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1959-60 • Associated Editor of the Arab Observe, Cairo, Egypt (English language news weekly) 1961-62. • Assistant Administrator and teacher, School of Music & Drama, University of Ghana, 1963-66. • Feature Editor of African Review, Accra, Ghana, 1964-66. • Contributor of free-lance articles, Ghanian Times, 1964-66. • Contributor to Radio Ghana, 1964-66. • Writer-in-Residence, University of Kansas in Lawrence, 1970. • Distinguished Visiting Professor – Wake Forest University, 1974. • Distinguished Visiting Professor – Wichita State University, 1974. • Distinguished Visiting Professor – California State University of Sacramento, 1974. • Appointed member of American Revolution Bicentennial Council by President Gerald Ford, 1975-76. • Served on Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Commission for International Women’s Year, 1978-79. • Appointed the First Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, lifetime appointment since 1981. • Fulbright Scholar Program, 40th Anniversary Distinguished Lecturer, Liberia, 1986. • Selected by American Council of the Arts to deliver the Nancy Hanks Lecture in Washington, D.C. on March 20, 1990. • Panelist at Institute for The Study of Human Systems in Zermatt, Switzerland, June 1990. • United States of America, Congressional Record, 104th Congress, House of Representatives, Tribute to Maya Angelou by the Honorable Kweisi Mfume, Maryland Congressman, 1996. • Wrote Invocation & Benediction for “Jessye Norman Sings For The Healing of AIDS” 1996. • Microsoft Encarta Africana Encyclopedia, presenter for The African Diaspora, 1998. • Board of Governors, University of North Carolina, “Maya Angelou Institute for the Improvement of Child and Family Education” at Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC, 1998. • Talk Show Host on Oprah & Friends XM Satellite Radio, station 156, launched September 25, 2006 at NASDAQ

LANGUAGES FLUENT IN: ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, ITALIAN, ARABIC, WEST AFRICAN FANTI

AFFILIATIONS • Member, Director’s Guild of America. • Member, Equity. • Member, AFTRA (American Federation Television Radio Artists). • Advisory Board, Woman’s Prison Association. • Harlem Writer’s Guild • Member, The National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year. • Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. • National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, London, England, named a center for her, The Maya Angelou C.P.T. and Family Centre opened with her cutting the ribbon, June 20, 1992. • Ambassador, UNICEF International, 1996. • Member, Doctors Without Borders, New York, 1996. • Member, W.E.B. DuBois Foundation, Inc., Amherst, MA. • Member, Advisory Board, Bennett College, Greensboro, NC. • Member, Advisory Board, First Commercial Bank, Little Rock, AR. • US Holocaust Memorial Museum Committee, Washington, DC, 2001 • Member, National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Washington, DC. • Member, Clinton Global Initiative, New York, NY • Board of Governors, Winston Salem State University, Maya Angelou Institute for the Improvement of Child and Family Education, 1998 • Induction, National Women’s Hall of Fame, 1998

HONORS & AWARDS * Chubb Fellowship Award – Yale University 1970 * Nominated for the National Book Award for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1970 * Pulitzer Prize Nomination for Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie, 1972 * Honorary Degree – Portland State University 1973 * Tony Award Nomination for her performance in “Look Away” 1973 * Distinguished Visiting Professor – Wichita State University, 1974 * Board of Trustees/American Film Institute 1975 * Rockfeller Foundation Scholar in Italy, Scholar-in-residence at the Bellagio Study & Conference Center 1975 * Honorary Degree – Smith College 1975 * Honorary Degree – Mills College 1975 * Honorary Degree – Lawrence University 1976 * Ladies’ Home Journal Award (“Woman of the Year in Communication”) 1976 * Nominated for an Emmy Award in made-for-television movie “Roots” 1977 * Golden Eagle Award – Documentary for PBS, “Afro-American in the Arts” 1977 * Honorary Degree – Columbia College 1979 * Honorary Degree – Occidental College 1979 * Honorary Degree – Atlanta University 1980 * Honorary Degree – University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff 1980 * Honorary Degree – Wheaton College 1981 * Honorary Degree – Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD, 1982 * Honorary Degree – Kean College of New Jersey 1982 * Honorary Degree – Claremont Graduate School 1982 * Honorary Degree – Spelman College 1983 * Honorary Degree – Boston College 1983 * Ladies’ Home Journal “Top 100 Most Influential Women” 1983 * The Matrix Award – Field of Books from Women in Communication, Inc. 1983 * Honorary Degree – Winston-Salem State University 1984 * Honorary Degree – University Brunesis 1984 * Honorary Degree – Howard University 1985 * Honorary Degree – Tufts University 1985 * Honorary Degree – University of Vermont 1985 * Honorary Degree – North Carolina School of the Arts 1986 * Fulbright Program 40th Anniversary Distinguished Lecturer, 1986 * The North Carolina Award in Literature (the highest honor the state bestows) 1987 * Honorary Degree – North Carolina School of the Arts 1988 * Honorary Degree – University of Southern California 1989 * American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award 1990 * Candace Award, National Coalition of 100 Black Women, 1990 * Recipient of the Langston Hughes Award presented at the City College of New York 1991 * Distinguished Woman of North Carolina 1992 * Essence Woman of the Year 1992 * Horatio Alger Award 1992 * Woman in Film, Crystal Award 1992 * Drum Major for Justice, 1992, from The California Advocate Fresno’s African American Community Newspaper * Honorary Degree – Northeastern University 1982 * Inaugural Poet for President Bill Clinton 1993 * Arkansas Black Hall of Fame 1993 * Honorary Degree – Skidmore College 1993 * Honorary Degree – University of North Carolina at Greensboro 1993 * Honorary Degree – Academy of Southern Arts & Letters 1993 * Grammy for Best Spoken Word or Non Musical Album 1993 for On the Pulse of Morning * Citizen Diplomat Award, 1993 * Walk of Fame – Rollins College, 1994 * Spingarn Award – NAACP 1994 * Honorary Degree – American Film Institute 1994 * Honorary Degree – Bowie State University 1994 * Frank G. Wells Award 1995 * Honorary Degree – University of Durham 1995 * Grammy for Best Spoken Word or Non Musical Album, 1995 for Phenomenal Woman * Lifetime Membership, N.A.A.C.P., Honeywell Corporation, Minneapolis, MN 1996 * President’s Award, Collegiate of Language Association for Outstanding Achievements, Winston-Salem, NC 1996 * Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Los Angeles & Martin Luther King, Jr. Legacy Association National Award 1996 * The New York Black 100, Schomburg Center & The Black New Yorkers 1996 * National Conference of Christians & Jews, Distinguished Merit Citation 1997 * Homecoming Award, Oklahoma Center for Poets & Writers 1997 * W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Expert-in-Residence Program 1997 * North Carolina Woman of the Year Award, N.C. Black Publishers Association 1997 * Presidential & Lecture Series Award, University of North Florida 1997 * Black Caucus of American Library Association, Cultural Keepers Award 1997 * Humanitarian Contribution Award, Boston, MA 1997 * Honorary Degree – Shaw University 1997 * Honorary Degree – Wake Forest University 1997 * NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Even the Stars Get Lonesome, 1997 * Alston/Jones International Civil & Human Rights Award 1998 * Christopher Award, New York, NY 1998 * American Airlines Audience, Gold Plaque Choice Award, Down in the Delta from Chicago International Film Festival 1998 * City Proclamation, Winston-Salem, NC from Mayor Jack Cavanaugh 1998 * Sheila Award, Tubman African American Museum, Macon, GA 1999 * Special Olympics World Games, Speaker, Raleigh, NC 1999 * Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature 1999 * Named one of the top 100 Best Writers of the 20th Century by Writer’s Digest 1999 * Honorary Degree – Lafayette College 1999 * Presidential Medal of Arts from President Clinton, 2000 * Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album, 2000 for A Song Flung up to Heaven * Honorary Degree, Hope College, 2001 * American Geriatrics Society’s Foundation for Health In Aging Award, 2002 * Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards (EMMAs), Lifetime Achievement, 2002 * Honorary Degree, Columbia University, 2003 * Honorary Degree, Eastern Connecticut University, 2003 * 2004 Grammy nomination for “Best Spoken Word Album” for Hallelujah! The Welcome Table * Charles Evans Hughes Award, National Conference for Community and Justice, 2004 * Howard University Heart’s Day Honoree, 2005 * New York Times Best Seller List, May 2006 * John Hope Franklin Award, June 2006 * Mother Teresa Award for her untiring devotion and service to humanity, August 2006 * The Quill Award for Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem, October 2006 * Matrix Human Services, Humanitarian Contribution Award, October 13, 2006, Detroit, MI * Black Caucus of American Library Association, Joint Conference of Librarians of Color Author Award, 2006 * 2007 nomination for NAACP Image Award, “Outstanding Literary Works” for Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer, award presented February 10, 2007 * 2007 School of Nursing recommendation for honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, University of Minnesota * The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, Inc., Dallas, TX, For Outstanding Contribution and Support to TBALL, September 23, 2007 * Medal of Honor Award, in recognition of her work in poetry, literature, film, speaking, etc. from the Cristóbal Gabarrón Foundation, November 29, 2007, this is the first time award presented to someone outside Spain * 2007 50th Grammy Awards Year nomination for “Best Spoken Word Album” for Celebrations * Martha Parker Legacy Award, 2007 * January 12, 2008 Inductee the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame, M.L.King, Jr. Historic Site, Atlanta, GA * June 1, 2008, Lincoln Medal Recipient, in recognition of her accomplishments/personal attributes that illuminate the character of President Abraham Lincoln, Washington, DC * Voice of Peace Award (first recipient), Hope for Peace and Justice, 2008 * Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Shenandoah University, Winchester, VA, September 2008 * Cornell Medallion, 2008 * Gracie Allen Award (Gracie), 2008 * The Ninth Annual Walter Dandy Orator Award, from The Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Orlando, FL, September 22, 2008 * The Marian Anderson Award, Philadelphia, PA, November 17, 2008 *February 7, 2009, nominations for 40th NAACP Image Awards for “Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction” for Letter to My Daughter and “Outstanding Literary Work-Children,” for Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem * 2008 NAACP Image Award for Letter to My Daughter, “Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction” for Letter to My Daughter, February 12, 2009 *May 2009, Honorary Degree, Kean University, Hillside, NJ *June 4, 2009, AWRT’s Gracie Award, Individual Achievement Award for “Outstanding Host” for the weekly XM Radio Program, the Dr. Maya Angelou Show * Presidential Medal of Freedom, announced November 17, 2010, receiving February 15, 2011 from President Obama * AARP’s Andrus Award, Washington, DC, December 9, 2010 * Mosaic Woman Legend Award, Diversity Magazine, October 2010 * Dignity & Respect Campaign’s “Champion Award,” February 2011 * Key and Proclamation to the District of Columbia, City of Washington, May 10, 2011 presented by Mayor Vincent C. Gray * “I Am the Urban League” Legacy Award, Winston Salem, NC, May 20, 2011 * Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc., “Generations Award,” October 29, 2011 * Meritorious Achievement Award, Florida A & M University, Tallahassee, FL, January 26, 2011 * B.E.T. Television’s “Literary Arts Award,” aired February 13, 2012 * Wake Forest University’s “Words Awake, A Celebration of Wake Forest Writers and Writing” Hall of Fame Inductee, March 25, 2012 * NC Writer’s Network’s Literary Hall of Fame, Fall 2012 * The Heritage Registry Who’s Who For Executives and Professionals 2012 edition, May 2012 * Maya Angelou Center for Women’s Health & Wellness @ Forsyth Medical Center opens June 2012 * Inductee, North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, a program of the North Carolina Writers’ Network, October 14, 2012 * The Furious Flower Lifetime Achievement Award, James Madison University, October 16, 2012

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Maya Angelou: The Meaning Behind Her Poem "Still I Rise"

Maya Angelou's "Still I Rise" is a powerful poem that draws on a range of influences, including her personal background and the African American experience in the United States. Its message of liberation and survival was a consistent theme in Angelou's work. Years after it was published in 1978, the poem continues to reach readers and audiences, cutting across racial lines and national boundaries. Angelou herself commented on its appeal in a 2008 interview: "You know, if you're lonely you feel you've been done down, it's nice to have 'And Still I Rise.'"

Poetry helped Angelou with her mutism as a child

Angelou grew up amid the degradations of the Jim Crow South . At the age of seven, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, who was killed (presumably by family members seeking retribution) after she reported the crime. Following this trauma, Angelou sought refuge in mutism. But even when she wouldn't speak, Angelou studied and memorized poems, which gave her a unique understanding of language.

A desire to express her love for poetry by speaking it aloud helped draw Angelou out of her mutism. Yet she didn't forget the wide breadth of literature she'd taken in, which included works by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes , Countee Cullen , Emily Dickinson and William Shakespeare .

She penned her first verses when she was still in school, and in the late 1950s, Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild , where she interacted with James Baldwin and other writers. She authored plays, including one that was produced off-Broadway in 1960. While living in Egypt in the early 1960s, she edited an English-language newspaper and also spent time as a singer, dancer and actress.

However, Angelou admitted that writing poetry was always a challenge for her: "When I come close to saying what I want to, I’m over the moon. Even if it’s just six lines, I pull out the champagne. But until then, my goodness, those lines worry me like a mosquito in the ear."

The death of Martin Luther King Jr. propelled Angelou to throw herself into her writing

In 1968, things changed for the writer — she was preparing to join forces with Martin Luther King Jr. to bring attention to his Poor People’s Campaign and decided to take some time to celebrate her 40th birthday before accompanying King. As Angelou was getting ready for a party on her birthday, April 4, she learned King had been assassinated . Years passed before she commemorated her birthday again.

One way Angelou coped following King's death was to write. Her breakthrough memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , was published in 1969. This was followed by additional memoirs, books of poetry and plays, including a dramatic musical production called And Still I Rise that was produced in Oakland, California, in 1976. In 1978, her poetry collection And Still I Rise was published. "Still I Rise" was included in this book

READ MORE: The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Angelou wanted to write a poem about 'defeat' and 'survival'

"Still I Rise" begins with, "You may write me down in history / With your bitter, twisted lies, / You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I'll rise." Throughout the poem, the types of harrowing and unjust treatment that Black people in America are addressed alongside declarations of "I rise."

Angelou drew upon blues, gospel and spiritual songs as inspiration for the balladic patterns of the poem. She uses a "call and response" technique, references her sexuality and perhaps because she appreciated African American oral traditions, the power of the poem becomes even more evident when recited.

The ability to cope with adversity is a strong theme throughout "Still I Rise." "All my work, my life, everything is about survival," she once stated . "All my work is meant to say, 'You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.' In fact, the encountering may be the very experience which creates the vitality and the power to endure."

For Angelou, Black people in America had remained "intact enough to survive, and to do better than that — to thrive. And to do better than that — to thrive with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style." In a 2009 interview , Angelou, whose great-grandmother was born into slavery, expressed her feeling that enslaved African Americans "couldn't have survived slavery without having hope that it would get better." This sentiment can be seen in the final lines of "Still I Rise": "I am the dream and the hope of the slave. / I rise / I rise / I rise."

READ MORE: Maya Angelou and 9 Other Best-Selling Black Authors

"Still I Rise" continues to resonate with new generations

Once, when asked what work could offer succor in difficult times, Angelou referred to "Still I Rise." She noted it was "a poem of mine that is very popular in the country. And a number of people use it. A lot of Black of people and a lot of white people use it."

Decades after it was published, people continue to reference "Still I Rise." In 1994, the United Negro College Fund , aiming for a more hopeful tone in its appeals, created a spot that featured Angelou reading part of "Still I Rise." Also that year, Nelson Mandela , having read Angelou's work while in prison during apartheid, recited "Still I Rise" when he was inaugurated as South Africa's president. A posthumous 1999 release from Tupac Shakur — who had cried in Angelou's arms when they were filming Poetic Justice together — was called Still I Rise , and among the tracks was a song with the same title. In 2017, Serena Williams issued a response that quoted some of Angelou's verses after a fellow tennis player made racist remarks about the child Williams was then expecting. That same year, a documentary about Angelou was called And Still I Rise . The film ends with Angelou's voice reciting the powerful poem — forever cementing its legacy.

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Maya Angelou

A short biography of maya angelou, maya angelou’s writing style, general characteristic of maya angelou’s style, style of poetry.

She used her poetry to encourage black people to protest against the government. The government has banned the teaching of Black Secular speech in school. Moreover, in her poetry, she also showed racism in her poetry that is still prevalent in America and protested against them. Maya Angelou has been considered as the poet laureate of black women. Her poems are regarded as the anthems of African Americans.

Maya Angelou’s Writing Style in Prose

Through her prose works, Angelou slows her readers to peer into her personal life. She describes her efforts to raise her son, Guy Johnson, in her book Singin’ and Swingin. She talks about her determination to raise him by working as a shake dancer in nightclubs, dinner cook, fry cook, and also had worked in a mechanic’s shop. She also gives details about her life as a prostitute. An intimate outlook of Angelou’s experiences is provided to the readers through her frank and conversational tone.

Beside I Know Why Caged Bird Sings, she also wrote numerous other novels. In this novel, she narrates her account of life from age one to seventeen. Her second autobiography/novel Gather Together in My Name was published in 1974 is the narration of her account of experiences as a mother with her son. The third and fourth book, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting Merry Like Christmas , were published in 1976 and account for four of her experiences as a dancer. In this book, she also narrates her traveling experience with Porgy and Bess.

Works Of Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou: A brief biography

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BIRTH NAME: Marguerite Johnson. She would take the stage name Maya Angelou as an adult.

AGE: 86. Born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She would spend some of her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas. She died May 28, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

EARLY CAREER: Angelou studied drama and dance at San Francisco’s Labor School, but dropped out to become the city’s first black female cable car conductor. As a young single mother, she danced at a strip club before touring in productions of “Porgy and Bess.” She worked on civil rights issues with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X and met Nelson Mandela while spending several years in Egypt and Ghana.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Angelou’s book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was released in 1969. She would write six more books about her life, along with more than 30 other works.

POETRY: Angelou read her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993. One of her best-known poems was “Still I Rise.” ”You may write me down in history. With your bitter, twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt. But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”

ADVICE FOR LIFE: “Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud,” from her book “Letter to My Daughter.”

LEGACY: Angelou wrote when her friend Nelson Mandela died: “No sun outlasts its sunset, but will rise again, and bring the dawn.” President Barack Obama used those words to remember Angelou as “one of the brightest lights of our time — a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman.”

FINAL TWEET: “Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.” (Posted May 23).

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Maya Angelou

• Occupation: Writer, Poet, Civil Rights Activist
• Born: April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri
• Died: May 28, 2014 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina
• Best known for: Her autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Gather Together in My Name
• Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas
• The Heart of a Woman
• All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes
• A Song Flung Up to Heaven
• Mom & Me & Mom
• On the Pulse of Morning
• Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Die
• And Still I Rise
• Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
• Even the Stars Look Lonesome
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was the first nonfiction best-selling book by an African-American woman.
• She had one son, Guy Johnson, at the age of seventeen.
• In 1973, she was nominated for a Tony Award for her role in the play Look Away .
• She taught as a full-time professor at Wake Forest University.
• She recited her poem On the Pulse of Morning at the 1993 presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton .
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page: