Maya Angelou

Born 1928 Died.....

Maya Angelou is a poet, playwright, actress, producer, director, historian, and civil-rights activist. She lectures throughout the US and abroad. Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 as Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri. Her nickname Maya came from her older brother who called her "My" or "Mine." Maya and her brother were sent to the segregated and rural Stamps, Arkansas, after her parents were divorced and was raised by their paternal grandmother.

In 1940 she and her brother moved to San Francisco to be with their mother, who had remarried. Maya took drama and dance lessons and at the age of sixtee she became a streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Maya had a son, Clyde "Guy" Johnson, shortly aftergraduation from high school in 1945. She married at the age of 22 to aformer sailor who was of Greek descent but the marriage only lasted two and a half years. She then set out to become a professional dancer.

Angelou moved to New York where she was chosen for a featured role in a production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess. The troupetoured twenty-two countries in Africa and Europe. She also performed inmany plays and operas and worked as a newspaper or magazine editor at different times like in Cairo, Egypt.

She is the first African-American woman to have a feature film adapted from one of her own stories. She also directed a film, and received nominations for her theatrical and cinematic performances.

Maya Angelou's has received many honors such as the American Academy of Achievement Award in 1990, and Horatio Alger Award in 1992. Angelous holds more than fifty honorary degrees. On January 1993 she recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Clinton. Maya was the first poet since Robert Frost in 1962 to receive such an invitation. Maya Angelou is currently Reynolds Professor at Wake Forest University,Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Quote from Maya Angelou

"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."