Dr. Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was born as Marguerite Johnson on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas.

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. Maya Angelou’s life would continue to mirror the American landscape paving the way for a firsthand experience with racism, single parenting, overcoming poverty, seeking higher education, creating wealth, living through, and participating in the civil rights movement. In later years she would embrace popular culture working with rappers, poets, musicians and filmmakers. She also began writing about her experience through poetry, biographies, journalism, children’s books, cook books and essays.

In the late 1950’s Maya Angelou joined the Harlem Writer’s Guild. She began work on “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. Published in 1970, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” received international acclaim made the bestseller list. The book was also banned in many schools during that time as Maya Angelou’s honesty about having been sexually abused opened a subject matter that had long been taboo in the culture. Later, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” would become a course adoption at college campuses around the world.

With a love for music, Maya Angelou would sing calypso, dance in night and supper clubs and eventually become known for her ability to write lyrics and perform spoken word. Maya Angelou has won three Grammys: Best Spoken Word Album, Best Spoken Word or Non Musical Album 1993 for “On the Pulse of Morning”, Grammy for Best Spoken Word or Non Musical Album, 1995 for “Phenomenal Woman”, Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album, 2000 for “A Song Flung up to Heaven.”

In 1960, Dr. Angelou moved to Cairo, Egypt where she served as editor of the English language weekly “The 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 for “The Ghanaian Times.”

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. After Malcolm X’s assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked Dr. Angelou to serve as Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Maya Angelou continued her work in Civil Rights after the assassination of Dr. King and has also been widely recognized as an international ambassador for good will crossing lines of race and culture.

Dr. Angelou has served on two presidential committees. 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 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000. In 2000, Maya Angelou received the National Medal of Arts. She penned the poem Amazing Peace for President George W. Bush and delivered the poem at the 2005 Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

In 2010, President Barack Obama presented her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.

Dr. Maya Angelou was found dead May 28, 2014 by her nurse.