Maya Angelou
Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our
time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet,
memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian,
filmmaker, and civil rights activist.
Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou was raised in
St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. In Stamps, Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality
of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values
of traditional African-American family, community, and culture.
As a teenager, Dr. Angelou’s love for the arts won her a scholarship to study
dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School. At 14, she dropped out to
become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor. She
later finished high school, giving birth to her son, Guy, a few weeks after graduation. As a young
single mother, she supported her son by working as a waitress and cook, however
her passion for music, dance, performance, and poetry would soon take center
stage.
In 1954 and 1955, Dr. Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera
Porgy and Bess. She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows and, in
1957, recorded her first album, Calypso Lady. In 1958, she moved to New
York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, acted in the historic
Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks and wrote and
performed Cabaret for Freedom.
In 1960, Dr. Angelou moved to Cairo, Egypt where she served as editor of the
English language weekly The Arab Observer. The next year, she moved to
Ghana where she taught at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama,
worked as feature editor for The African Review and wrote for The
Ghanaian Times.
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 X's assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked Dr. Angelou to
serve as Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King's
assassination, falling on her birthday in 1968, left her devastated.
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 was published to international acclaim and
enormous popular success. The list of her published verse, non-fiction, and
fiction now includes more than 30 bestselling titles.
A trailblazer in film and television, Dr. Angelou wrote the screenplay and
composed the score for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia. Her script, the
first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize.
She continues to appear on television and in films including the landmark
television adaptation of Alex Haley's Roots (1977) and John Singleton's Poetic Justice (1993). In
1996, she directed her first feature film, Down in the Delta. In 2008,
she composed poetry for and narrated the award-winning documentary The Black
Candle, directed by M.K.
Asante.
Dr. Angelou has served on two presidential committees, was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and has received
3 Grammy Awards. President Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at
his inauguration in 1993. Dr. Angelou's reading of her poem "On the Pulse of the Morning" was broadcast live
around the world.
Dr. Angelou has received over 30 honorary degrees and is Reynolds Professor
of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
To find more poems written by Maya Angelou, click here.
Source: http://mayaangelou.com/bio/`
time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet,
memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian,
filmmaker, and civil rights activist.
Born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, Dr. Angelou was raised in
St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. In Stamps, Dr. Angelou experienced the brutality
of racial discrimination, but she also absorbed the unshakable faith and values
of traditional African-American family, community, and culture.
As a teenager, Dr. Angelou’s love for the arts won her a scholarship to study
dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School. At 14, she dropped out to
become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor. She
later finished high school, giving birth to her son, Guy, a few weeks after graduation. As a young
single mother, she supported her son by working as a waitress and cook, however
her passion for music, dance, performance, and poetry would soon take center
stage.
In 1954 and 1955, Dr. Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera
Porgy and Bess. She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows and, in
1957, recorded her first album, Calypso Lady. In 1958, she moved to New
York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, acted in the historic
Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks and wrote and
performed Cabaret for Freedom.
In 1960, Dr. Angelou moved to Cairo, Egypt where she served as editor of the
English language weekly The Arab Observer. The next year, she moved to
Ghana where she taught at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama,
worked as feature editor for The African Review and wrote for The
Ghanaian Times.
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 X's assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked Dr. Angelou to
serve as Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King's
assassination, falling on her birthday in 1968, left her devastated.
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 was published to international acclaim and
enormous popular success. The list of her published verse, non-fiction, and
fiction now includes more than 30 bestselling titles.
A trailblazer in film and television, Dr. Angelou wrote the screenplay and
composed the score for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia. Her script, the
first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize.
She continues to appear on television and in films including the landmark
television adaptation of Alex Haley's Roots (1977) and John Singleton's Poetic Justice (1993). In
1996, she directed her first feature film, Down in the Delta. In 2008,
she composed poetry for and narrated the award-winning documentary The Black
Candle, directed by M.K.
Asante.
Dr. Angelou has served on two presidential committees, was awarded the
Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and has received
3 Grammy Awards. President Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at
his inauguration in 1993. Dr. Angelou's reading of her poem "On the Pulse of the Morning" was broadcast live
around the world.
Dr. Angelou has received over 30 honorary degrees and is Reynolds Professor
of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
To find more poems written by Maya Angelou, click here.
Source: http://mayaangelou.com/bio/`