Dr Maya Angelou, writer and civil rights activist was born on April 4th, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She is well-known for her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which was published in 1969 and made literary history by being the first nonfiction best-seller written by an African-American woman.
Her poetry collection Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die was published in 1971 and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in that same year. She has received numerous honors throughout her career, amongst those two NAACP Image Awards in the category for outstanding literary work (nonfiction), which was awarded to her in 2005 and 2009 respectively.
Dr Maya’s talents include being an author, actress, screenwriter, dancer and poet. She was born with the name Marguerite Annie Johnson and at a young age her parents split up, which led to her growing up with her brother at their father’s mother in Arkansas.
Here she was exposed to racial prejudices, discrimination and at the age of 7 she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. After the rape, her uncles killed the boyfriend and the whole process led to such intense trauma that Angelou spent several years in Arkansas as a virtual mute.
In 1944, at the age of 16 Angelou gave birth to a son, Guy, which saw her working a number of jobs to support both herself and her child. 8 years later, she married a Greek sailor called Anastasios Angelopulos and this led her to her professional name which is a blend of her childhood nickname “Maya” and a shortened version of her husband’s surname.
In the mid 1950’s her performance career began to take off with several roles in touring productions, off-Broadway productions and the release of her first album in 1957 called Miss Calypso.
She also became a member of the Harlem Writers Guild and started her work as civil rights activist by organizing and starring in the musical revue Cabaret for Freedom as a benefit for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She spent much of the 1960’s abroad, living first in Egypt and then Ghana, where she held a position at the country’s university.
Upon her return to the United States, a friend and fellow writer called James Baldwin, urged her to write about her life experiences. This resulted in the 1969 memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which saw her become an international star.
She has continued to break new ground and wrote the drama Georgia, Georgia in 1972, becoming the first African-American woman to have her screenplay produced. She later earned a Tony Award nomination for her role in the play Look Away in 1973 and in 1977 she was nominated for an Emmy Award for her work on television series Roots.
Angelou’s later successes include the following:
· All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes (1986 – autobiography)
· A Song Flung Up to Heaven(2002 – autobiography)
· Directing Down in the Delta (1998)
· Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now(1994 – essay collection)
· Great Food, All Day Long(2010 – cookbook)
· And many more not mentioned here
On Angelou’s birthday in 1968, a close friend Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated and many years after this incident she stopped celebrating her birthday and instead sent flowers to King Jr’s widow, Coretta Scott King until her death in 2006. Angelou was also good friends with TV personality Oprah Winfrey who organised many a birthday celebration for her.
After a few years with health issues, Maya Angelou died at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on 28 May 2014, a tragedy that shocked many and even prompted a statement from President Barack Obama in which he called her “a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman.” He wrote: “Angelou had the ability to remind us that we are all God’s children, that we all have something to offer.”
