Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is one person who truly knows how to put the right words together to give them deeper meaning.
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Mo. At the age of three her parents divorced, and she and her brother went to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Ark. Living in a southern state, Angelou encountered racial discrimination but credits her grandmother and family with instilling faith and values. Her brother, whom she was very close to, nicknamed her Maya.
On a visit to Chicago to visit her mother, a young Maya was sexually molested by her mother�s boyfriend. Ashamed and hurt, she confided only in her brother, who would later tell their uncle. The children�s uncle murdered the man who molested Maya, a traumatic experience for any child. However, young Maya felt that her words had killed the man and as a result she would not speak for the next five years. She learned early that there was great power in words.
At the age of 13, Angelou and her brother moved back in with their mother who was living now in San Francisco. A good student, Angelou received a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco�s Labor School. Although she would drop out briefly to become San Francisco�s first African-American female cable car conductor, the exposure to progressive ideals at the Labor School would mold her political activism.
Angelou returned to school but became pregnant at the age of 16. She left school, left home and took on the life of a single mother. Struggling to make ends meet, Angelou became a nightclub singer and enjoyed some success. She toured Europe in 1954 with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess and studied modern dance with Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey. Angelou later released her first record album, Calypso Lady.
Her passion for writing never diminished over the years and with a move to New York City, she joined the Harlem Writers Guild.
Her writing career was somewhat sidetracked when she and her son moved to Ghana where she served as an instructor and assistant administrator at the University of Ghana�s School of Music and Drama. During her years abroad, she studied and mastered French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language, Fanti. She also met Malcolm X and intended to help build his new organization, Organization of African American Unity. Unfortunately, Malcolm X was assassinated shortly after.
Returning to the United States, Dr. Angelou was still involved in the Civil Rights Movement and worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King requested that Dr. Angelou serve as Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King was assassinated on her birthday, and left her devastated.
Dr. Angelou�s friend and novelist, James Baldwin was helping her with her writing during the time she worked with Dr. King. The outcome was the widely-acclaimed I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She wrote subsequent books and autobiographical works. She wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the film, I Georgia, Georgia, which was the first to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, by an African-American woman.
Dr. Angelou has worked closely with several U.S. Presidents, in various capacities. President Gerald Ford appointed her to the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and President Jimmy Carter invited her to serve on the Presidential Commission for the International Year of the Woman. President Bill Clinton requested she compose and read a poem at his inauguration in 1993. She has worked at Wake Forest University as Reynolds Professor of American Studies for 26 years and has made appearances in films including Poetic Justice, a television adaptation of Roots and Down in the Delta.
Dr. Angelou�s published works include more than 30 titles, beginning with Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971). Books of her stories and essays include Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now (1993) and Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997). She has continued the compelling narrative of her life in the books Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1987) and A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002).
Outside of academica, Dr. Angelou has achieved recognition for her poetry from bodies honoring achievement in music and theater. She has received a nomination for the Tony Awards, and in 1993 won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for On the Pulse of Morning. In 2005, Angelou was honored by Oprah Winfrey at her "Legends Ball" along with 25 other African-American women whom Winfrey considered inspirational.