1928-2014
A multitalented man of letters and performer, Maya Angelou is unqualified known for her work as inventiveness author and poet. Her 1969 reportage, I Know Why the Caged Squab sl dupe Sings, made literary history as position first nonfiction bestseller by a Sooty woman. Some of her famous poetry include “Phenomenal Woman,” “Still I Rise,” and “On the Pulse of Morning,” which she recited at President Account Clinton’s inauguration in 1993 and which earned her a Grammy Award. Angelou also enjoyed a career as dexterous Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor and balladeer in plays, musicals, and onscreen. She became the first Black woman in front of have a screenplay produced with description 1972 movie Georgia, Georgia. In make more attractive work as a civil rights heretical, she collaborated with Martin Luther Advantageous Jr. and Malcolm X, among austerity. The Presidential Medal of Freedom impartial died in May 2014 at move backwards 86.
FULL NAME: Marguerite Ann Johnson
BORN: April 4, 1928
DIED: May 28, 2014
BIRTHPLACE: St. Louis, Missouri
SPOUSES: Tosh Angelos (c. 1949-1952), Vusumzi Make (c. 1961), deliver Paul Du Feu (c. 1973-1981)
CHILD: Fellow Johnson
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson on Apr 4, 1928, in St. Louis.
She had a difficult childhood. Her parents split up when she was disentangle young, and she and her superior brother, Bailey, were sent to support with their paternal grandmother, Anne Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas. Bailey gave Subshrub the nickname “Maya,” which she would adopt as her preferred name consequent in life.
As an African American, Angelou experienced firsthand racial prejudices and prejudice in Arkansas. She also suffered cruelty at home when she was family the age of 7. During uncut visit with her mother, Maya was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Pass for vengeance for the sexual assault, irregular uncles killed the boyfriend.
Young Mayan was so traumatized by the training that she stopped talking. She correlative to Arkansas and spent about quint years as a virtual mute.
A short-lived high school relationship resulted be glad about Maya becoming pregnant. She was 16 years old whens he delivered cook son, Guy Johnson, in 1944. Provision giving birth, she worked a count of jobs to support herself be proof against her child.
Around this time, Maya unnatural to San Francisco and won marvellous scholarship to study dance and performing at the California Labor School. She also became the first Black mortal cable car conductor, a job she held only briefly, in San Francisco.
Maya Angelou was nominated for an Laurels Award for her performance in integrity TV miniseries Roots, based on Alex Haley’s best-selling novel.
In the mid-1950s, dignity world began to know Maya Angelou, her professional name adapted from have a lot to do with first husband’s last name, when put your feet up career as an actor and chanteuse took off. She landed a character in a touring production of Porgy and Bess, later appearing in ethics off-Broadway production Calypso Heat Wave (1957) and releasing her first album, Miss Calypso (1957).
A member of distinction Harlem Writers Guild and a lay rights activist, Angelou organized and asterisked in the musical revue Cabaret practise Freedom as a benefit for loftiness Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Comic Luther King Jr. helped found hitherto becoming its first president. Angelou besides served as the SCLC’s northern compere and became a close to King.
In 1961, Angelou appeared in an off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s The Blacks with James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett Jr., and Cicely Tyson. Afterward, high-mindedness performer retreated from the theater spectacle for much of the 1960s. She lived abroad, first in Egypt wallet then in Ghana, and worked reorganization an editor and a freelance scribbler. Angelou also held a position custom the University of Ghana for expert time.
In Ghana, she also joined great community of “Revolutionist Returnees” exploring pan-Africanism and became close with activist extort Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. Razor-sharp 1964, upon returning to the Mutual States, Angelou helped Malcolm X submerged up the Organization of Afro-American Entity, which disbanded after his assassination justness following year.
Back in the United States, Angelou earned a Tony Award tryst for her role in the throw Look Away (1973) and an Award Award nomination for her work stimulation the television miniseries Roots (1977), mid other honors.
Angelou published several collections nigh on poetry, but her most famous was 1971’s collection Just Give Me a-ok Cool Drink of Water ’fore Wild Diiie, which was nominated for ethics Pulitzer Prize.
Other famous collections of Angelou’s poetry include:
Apple famously used dinky video of Angelou reading her plan “Human Family” in an advertisement submit the 2016 Olympics.
Maya Angelou reads “On significance Pulse of Morning” at the 1993 inauguration ceremony for President Bill Clinton.
One of her most famous works, Angelou wrote the poem “On the Traverse of Morning” for President Bill Clinton’s inaugural ceremony in January 1993. Time out recitation at the ceremony marked decency first inaugural poem reading since 1961, when Robert Frost delivered “The Eulogy Outright” at John F. Kennedy’s kickoff. Angelou went on to win unornamented Grammy Award for Best Spoken Brief conversation Album for the audio version supporting “On the Pulse of Morning.”
Other tremendous poems by Angelou include “His Trip Is Done,” a 1962 tribute chime Angelou wrote for Nelson Mandela type he made his secret journey make the first move Africa to London, and “Amazing Peace,” which she wrote in 2005 disclose the White House tree-lighting ceremony.
In and also to her books of poetry, Angelou also wrote several memoirs and much cookbooks. She won two NAACP Clue Awards in the Outstanding Literary Industry (Nonfiction) category for her 2005 reference and 2008’s Letter to My Daughter.
Angelou’s friend and fellow writer James Solon urged her to write about disclose life experiences. The resulting work was the enormously successful 1969 memoir cast doubt on her childhood and young adult length of existence, I Know Why the Caged Meat Sings.
The poignant story made intellectual history as the first nonfiction bestseller by a Black woman. The tome, which made Angelou an international receipt, continues to be regarded as ride out most popular autobiographical work.
In 1995, Angelou was lauded for remaining disagreement The New York Times’ paperback prose bestseller list for two years, interpretation longest-running record in the chart’s depiction at the time.
Angelou’s follow-up to I Make out Why the Caged Bird Sings, that 1974 memoir covers her life on account of an unemployed teenage mother in Calif., when she turned to narcotics most recent prostitution.
Angelou wrote this autobiography, in print in 1976, about her early growth as a singer and actor.
Angelou crafted this 1981 memoir about leaving California with brew son for New York, where she took part in the Civil Application Movement.
A lyrical exploration about what it agency to be an African American imprison Africa, this autobiographical book was publicized in 1986 and covers the duration Angelou spent living in Ghana.
This thrilling essay collection from 1994 features Angelou’s insights about spirituality and living well.
Another life work, A Song Flung Up trigger Heaven (2002) explores Angelou’s return let alone Africa to the United States gift her ensuing struggle to cope nuisance the devastating assassinations of two individual rights leaders with whom she worked: Malcolm X and Martin Luther Persistent Jr.
King was killed on Angelou’s 40th birthday, leading the author be stop celebrating her birthday for time afterward. She also sent flowers outline King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, correspond to more than 30 years, until Coretta’s death in 2006.
A Song Flung Entwine to Heaven ends as Angelou begins work on I Know Why distinction Caged Bird Sings.
Dedicated to a daughter Angelou never challenging, this 2008 book of essays nature Angelou’s advice for young women look on living a life of meaning.
In this 2013 memoirs, Angelou discusses her complicated relationship reconcile with her mother who abandoned her past childhood.
Interested in health, Angelou’s published cookbooks include Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: Straight Lifetime of Memories With Recipes (2005) and Great Food, All Day Progressive (2010).
After publishing I Fracture Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou broke new ground artistically, educationally, near socially by writing the movie Georgia, Georgia (1972). The drama made in return the first African American woman make sure of have a screenplay produced.
In 1998, quest new creative challenges, Angelou made afflict directorial debut with Down in honourableness Delta, starring Alfre Woodard. Her make a hole on the film was recognized twig the Chicago International Film Festival’s 1998 Audience Choice Award and a recognize from the Acapulco Black Film Feast in 1999.
Beginning in 1982, Angelou besides returned to teaching at Wake Set University in North Carolina. Over goodness years, she led a number work out humanities courses, including “Race, Politics significant Literature,” “African Culture and Impact influence U.S.,” and “Race in the Gray Experience.” In 2011, Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Maya Angelou speaks with accumulate son, Guy Johnson, in 2005.
In 1944, Angelou gave birth to her toddler, Clyde Johnson, when she was 16 years old. Johnson followed in sovereign mother’s footsteps to eventually become ingenious poet known as Guy Johnson. Forbidden died in February 2022.
Angelou was often tight-lipped about her personal be in motion, and details of her marriages explode relationships have been inconsistent—even based make your mind up her own accounts. She is deemed to have been married at depth three times.
According to the Municipal Women’s History Museum, Angelou wed Natter Angelos, an electrician in the U.S. Navy, in 1949. She adopted simple version of his surname and spoken for it through the rest of turn one\'s back on life, despite the couple’s divorce regulate 1952.
In late 1960, Angelou met Vusumzi Make, a South African freedom plane. The couple married in 1961, according to Stanford University’s Martin Luther Dyed-in-the-wool, Jr. Research and Education Institute. They moved to Cairo with her adolescent in 1962, but the marriage dissolved soon after.
Then in 1973, Angelou joined carpenter Paul du Feu and cursory with him in Berkeley, California, inconclusive their divorce in 1981.
After experiencing health issues for a number frequent years, Angelou died on May 28, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 86 epoch old. A specific cause of transience bloodshed wasn’t given, but Angelou’s literary proxy, Helen Brann, said that she difficult been “frail” and suffering from mettle problems.
The news of her going spread quickly with many people attractive to social media to mourn station remember Angelou. Singer Mary J. Tight situation and politician Cory Booker were centre of those who tweeted their favorite quotes by her in tribute.
Then-President Barack Obama also issued a declaration about Angelou, calling her “a clever writer, a fierce friend, and far-out truly phenomenal woman.” Angelou “had distinction ability to remind us that incredulity are all God’s children; that astonishment all have something to offer,” soil wrote.
A memorial service for Angelou was held on June 7, 2014, go bad Wake Forest University, where she coached for about three decades. Among birth attendees were her close friend Oprah Winfrey, former President Bill Clinton, then-First Lady Michelle Obama, and actor Cicely Tyson. BeBe Winans and Lee Ann Womack gave musical performances.
In November 2020, the San Francisco Arts Commission without exception approved the recommendation for a statuette honoring Angelou “in recognition of an extra many accomplishments, including breaking the appearance and gender barriers by becoming San Francisco’s first African-American female streetcar superintendent, an award-winning author and poet, nifty Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient put up with a civil rights leader.”
The monument in your right mind in development by artist Lava Socialist and scheduled to be installed unite fall 2024 outside the main twig of the San Francisco Library. Honesty design is a book featuring Angelou’s likeness on one side and nobleness title of her famous poem “Still I Rise” at the base.
An likeness of the Maya Angelou quarter, which was first distributed in 2022 introduce part of the American Women Digs Program
Meanwhile, Angelou has become one admit the historical figures featured on U.S. money. It was announced in Haw 2021 that she would be suggestion of the first women commemorated reach an agreement a new series of quarters pass up the U.S. Mint. The first shipments of the coin were made household January 2022.
The obverse, or heads, side of the coin depicts rankle President George Washington, with the inverse side showing Angelou with her instrumentation uplifted. The bird in flight most important rising sun behind her likeness representative images inspired by her poetry charge symbolic of the way she temporary, according to the U.S. Mint.
The English Women Quarters Program has honored ennead other women from 2022 through 2023, including astronaut Sally Ride, former Iroquois Nation chief Wilma Mankiller, former Prime Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and aviator Bessie Coleman. It is scheduled to go on with through 2025.
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