Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) born Marguerite Annie Johnson, was one of the most renowned and celebrated voices in American literature. She was a poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, dancer, historian, filmmaker, sex worker, and civil rights activist. In the mid-fifties, 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. She also worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), under Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership. In the early 1960s, she moved with her son to the continent of Africa, where she lived and worked for various news outlets, as a journalist in Egypt and Ghana. Angelou published her first book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) to international acclaim and enormous popular success. Her published verse, non-fiction, and fiction include more than 30 bestselling titles, such as Gather Together in My Name (1974), And Still I Rise (1978), and I Shall Not Be Moved (1990). Among her accomplishments, 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 made numerous television and film appearances, in Alex Haley's Roots (1977) and John Singleton's Poetic Justice (1993), among others. The feature film, Down in the Delta, was Angelou's directorial debut.
Angelou composed and read her poem "On the Pulse of the Morning" at President William (Bill) Clinton's first inaugural ceremony in 1993. Angelou served on two presidential committees; was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008; and has received three Grammy Awards. Despite never attending college, she received over thirty honorary degrees from universities across the nation.
Text Source: New York Public Library.
Archives
Maya Angelou Papers, New York Public Library (Schomburg Center) →
Maya Angelou Film & Theater Collection, Wake Forest University →
Digital Resources
Selected Speeches, Iowa State University →