Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was hailed as a global renaissance woman. She was a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. She was born on April 4, 1928 in St Louis, Missouri. She grew up in Stamps, Arkansas. Maya Angelou experienced the brutality of racial discrimination. She also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African American family community and culture as a teenager.

Dr. Angelou loved arts.  So, she won her scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco.  As a  laborer, at 14, she dropped out to become San Francisco’s first African American female cable car conductor.  A few weeks after graduation, she finished high school giving birth to her son Guy.  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. 

Maya Angelou read and she also studied and mastered French, Spanish, Italian and Arabic.  While in Ghana, she met Malcolm X.   In 1964, she returned to American to help Malcolm X build his new organization of African American unity.  After she arrived in the United States, Malcolm X was assassinated and his organization dissolved. 

Maya Angelou served as northern coordinator for the southern Christian leadership conference.  Maya began on her book that would become I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, which was published in 1970.  Also, it  was published to  international acclaim.  Maya appeared on television and films, including the landmark television adaption of Alex Haley's Roots.  President Clinton requested Maya to compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1933.  Maya Angelou read her poem “On the Pulse of the Morning”.  It was broadcast live around the world.  Maya also won awards of arts in 2000 and the Lincoln medal in 2008.

Takeya