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Maya Angelou Biography

Author, Civil Rights Activist, Poet (19282014)

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.

As a teenager, Dr. Angelous love for the arts won her a scholarship to
study dance and drama at San Franciscos Labor School. At 14, she
dropped out to become San Franciscos first African-American female
cable car conductor.
As a young single mother, she supported her son by working as
a waitress and cook.
In later years she would embrace popular culture working with
rappers, poets, musicians and filmmakers. Writing about her
experience with eloquence and detail, Maya Angelou recorded history
through poetry, biographies, journalism, childrens books, cook books
and essays painting a picture of the American landscape for
generations to come.
In 1950 Maya Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild and 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
Angelous 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.
In 1958, she moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem
Writers Guild, acted in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean
Genets The Blacks and wrote and performed Cabaret for Freedom.
Maya Angelou also would sing calypso, dance in night and
supper clubs and eventually become known for her ability to write
lyrics and perform spoken word. And she worked with many different
famous singers. Maya Angelou has won three Grammys: Best Spoken
Word Album, Best Spoken Word or Non Musical Album 1993 for On the
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Pulse of Morning, Grammy for Best Spoken Word or Non Musical


Album, 1995 for Phenomenal Woman, Grammy for Best Spoken Word
Album, 2000 for A Song Flung up to Heaven.
During her years abroad, Dr. Angelou read and studied
voraciously, mastering French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West
African language Fanti. While in Ghana, she met with Malcolm X and,
in 1964, returned to America to help him build his new Organization of
African American Unity.
Shortly after her arrival in the United States, Malcolm X was
assassinated, and the organization dissolved. Soon after Xs
assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked Dr. Angelou to serve as
Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference. Kings assassination, falling on her birthday in 1968, left
her devastated.
Maya Angelou continued her work in Civil Rights and has also
been widely recognized as a international ambassador for good will
crossing lines of race and culture.
President Barack Obama presented her the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, the countrys highest civilian honor in 2010. Dr. Maya
Angelou received over 50 honorary degrees and was the Reynolds
Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University for more than
25 years.
She died on May 28, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, North
Carolina.
Dr. Angelous words and actions continue to stir our souls,
energize our bodies, liberate our minds, and heal our hearts.
Some of the best books:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969);


Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water for I Die (1971);
The Heart of a Woman (1981);
Wouldnt Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993);
Mom & Me & Mom (2013);

Some Mayas quotes:


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.
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget
what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

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When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first
time.
We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the
changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without
courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.

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