Birthday: April 4, 1928

Who is Maya Angelou?

Marguerite Anne Johnson, or better known as Maya Angelou, is a renowned poet and activist. She authored seven autobiographies and other literary pieces. Aside from being skilled in writing, she was also known in the field of performing arts for her skills in dancing, singing, acting, and directing.

Five Facts About Maya Angelou

• A notable black American poet, essayist, playwright, writer, and editor
• Showered with over a dozen awards and about 50 honorary degrees
• Made name in the performing arts industry as the first female black director of Hollywood
• Worked as a civil rights activist under Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• Received a National Book Award in 2013 entitled the Literary Award for her outstanding contributions to the field

Inspirational Quotes from Maya Angelou

“If you’re always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be”

“Nothing will work unless you do”

Maya Angelou Biography 

Early Life

Marguerite Anne Johnson was born on the 4^th of April 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She got her nickname ‘Maya’ from her older brother Bailey. At a young age, she had to go through a lot of hurdles before she finally obtained the peace and honor she deserves.

At 3 years old, their parents’ ended their toxic marriage.

However, despite the horrors in her life, she grew an intense passion for literature and obtained astounding memory and observational skills. Poetry became her escape and coping mechanism for the traumatic experiences she went through. Mrs. Bertha Flowers played a huge part in regaining her strength to speak again, and it was when she was brought back to live with her grandmother that they were able to meet.

Flowers ignited Angelou’s love for literature by introducing her to different authors and black female artists who became her inspirations in her journey to her career. In 1951, she had an interracial marriage with a Greek electrician named Tosh Angelos despite the disapproval of her mother. It didn’t last long, however, and ended 3 years later in 1954.

Career

Before she made her name in the literary and performing arts field, Angelou worked various different jobs such as a fry cook Fortunately, she was discovered by a theater group and gained a role in Porgy and Bess, an international tour that took her to 22 countries.

In 1959, she was given the chance to get involved with Harlem writers who then became her close friends and was also committed to the civil rights movement. In 1961, she moved to Ghana where her son got into a car accident, pushing her to take a job as a feature editor at the African Review in Ghana to take care of her son. That was the start of her literary skills exposure.

In 1969, her autobiography entitled “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was published, and the public honored her as one of the first African-American women brave enough to expose the stories of their lives and be proud of their color.

This was then followed by six more autobiographies namely:

• Gather Together in My Name
• Singin’ and Swimmin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas
• The Heart of a Woman
• All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes
• A Song Flung Up to Heaven
• Mom & Me & Mom

In 1974, she returned to the US and was appointed by Gerald Ford to the Bicentennial Commission followed by Jimmy Carter who appointed her to the Commission for International Woman of the Year. She accepted a lifetime commitment as an educator of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 1982.

Legacy and Death

Angelou’s autobiographies were widely used in schools as narratives and basis for multicultural approaches. Some of these were ‘I Know Why a Caged Bird Sings’ and ‘Gather Together in My Name’. She was also given honor by various organizations and groups for her excellency that earned her multiple awards and honors like the following:

• Pulitzer Prize nomination for Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiiee
• Tony Award nomination
• Grammys (3)
• Spingarn Medal
• National Medal of Arts
• Presidential Medal of Freedom

Angelou also inspired a lot of black women in the 1970s to pursue a career in writing, causing the number of black feminist literary pieces to rise up with the help of Caged Bird. She became the voice of the black people and women, and her poetry inspired many artists of the modern hip-hop music community including Nicki Minaj, Kanye West, and Common.

Angelou died a year after receiving the Literarian Award at the age of 86 in 2014.