Global Renaissance Woman
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 weeklyThe 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 forThe 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 ofAlex 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 documentaryThe 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 50 honorary degrees and is
Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
Dr. Angelou’s words and actions continue to stir our souls,
energize our bodies, liberate our minds, and heal our hearts.
Thanku sir.
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