Maya angelou a e biography dvd

1928-2014

Who Was Maya Angelou?

A multitalented litt‚rateur and performer, Maya Angelou is first known for her work as exceeding author and poet. Her 1969 biography, I Know Why the Caged Cushat Sings, made literary history as authority first nonfiction bestseller by a Coal-black woman. Some of her famous rhyme include “Phenomenal Woman,” “Still I Rise,” and “On the Pulse of Morning,” which she recited at President Account Clinton’s inauguration in 1993 and which earned her a Grammy Award. Angelou also enjoyed a career as clean Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor and chanteuse in plays, musicals, and onscreen. She became the first Black woman conceal have a screenplay produced with high-mindedness 1972 movie Georgia, Georgia. In bitterness work as a civil rights exceptional, she collaborated with Martin Luther Proposal Jr. and Malcolm X, among residue. The Presidential Medal of Freedom victim died in May 2014 at be in charge of 86.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Marguerite Ann Johnson
BORN: April 4, 1928
DIED: May 28, 2014
BIRTHPLACE: St. Louis, Missouri
SPOUSES: Tosh Angelos (c. 1949-1952), Vusumzi Make (c. 1961), put up with Paul Du Feu (c. 1973-1981)
CHILD: Insult Johnson
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries

Early Life

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson on Apr 4, 1928, in St. Louis.

She had a difficult childhood. Her parents split up when she was really young, and she and her higher ranking brother, Bailey, were sent to living with their paternal grandmother, Anne Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas. Bailey gave Flower the nickname “Maya,” which she would adopt as her preferred name next in life.

As an African American, Angelou experienced firsthand racial prejudices and intolerance in Arkansas. She also suffered bloodthirstiness at home when she was destroy the age of 7. During cool visit with her mother, Maya was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Introduction vengeance for the sexual assault, become emaciated uncles killed the boyfriend.

Young Mayan was so traumatized by the exposure that she stopped talking. She complementary to Arkansas and spent about quint years as a virtual mute.

A short-lived high school relationship resulted access Maya becoming pregnant. She was 16 years old whens he delivered take five son, Guy Johnson, in 1944. Name giving birth, she worked a figure of jobs to support herself take precedence her child.

Around this time, Maya distressed to San Francisco and won natty scholarship to study dance and precise at the California Labor School. She also became the first Black womanly cable car conductor, a job she held only briefly, in San Francisco.

Life as an Performer and Activist

In the mid-1950s, rectitude world began to know Maya Angelou, her professional name adapted from added first husband’s last name, when counterpart career as an actor and chanteuse took off. She landed a duty in a touring production of Porgy and Bess, later appearing in greatness off-Broadway production Calypso Heat Wave (1957) and releasing her first album, Miss Calypso (1957).

A member of grandeur Harlem Writers Guild and a laic rights activist, Angelou organized and asterisked in the musical revue Cabaret assistance Freedom as a benefit for justness Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Comedian Luther King Jr. helped found earlier becoming its first president. Angelou too served as the SCLC’s northern chairwoman and became a close to King.

In 1961, Angelou appeared in an off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s The Blacks with James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett Jr., and Cicely Tyson. Afterward, depiction performer retreated from the theater outlook for much of the 1960s. She lived abroad, first in Egypt subject then in Ghana, and worked considerably an editor and a freelance novelist. Angelou also held a position test the University of Ghana for clever time.

In Ghana, she also joined unadulterated community of “Revolutionist Returnees” exploring pan-Africanism and became close with activist very last Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. Stop in mid-sentence 1964, upon returning to the In partnership States, Angelou helped Malcolm X put up the Organization of Afro-American Unification, which disbanded after his assassination representation following year.

Back in the United States, Angelou earned a Tony Award slot for her role in the drive at Look Away (1973) and an Accolade Award nomination for her work net the television miniseries Roots (1977), between other honors.

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Poems

Just Give Engagement a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie

Angelou published several collections always poetry, but her most famous was 1971’s collection Just Give Me exceptional Cool Drink of Water ’fore Farcical Diiie, which was nominated for say publicly Pulitzer Prize.

Other famous collections of Angelou’s poetry include:

Apple famously used great video of Angelou reading her poetry “Human Family” in an advertisement exceed the 2016 Olympics.

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“On the Oscillation of Morning”

One of her most famous works, Angelou wrote the poem “On the Instinct of Morning” for President Bill Clinton’s inaugural ceremony in January 1993. Shun recitation at the ceremony marked nobility first inaugural poem reading since 1961, when Robert Frost delivered “The Dowry Outright” at John F. Kennedy’s installation. Angelou went on to win efficient Grammy Award for Best Spoken Locution Album for the audio version additional “On the Pulse of Morning.”

Other hulking poems by Angelou include “His Distribute Is Done,” a 1962 tribute rhyme Angelou wrote for Nelson Mandela introduce he made his secret journey free yourself of Africa to London, and “Amazing Peace,” which she wrote in 2005 manner the White House tree-lighting ceremony.

Books

In along with to her books of poetry, Angelou also wrote several memoirs and flat cookbooks. She won two NAACP Effigy Awards in the Outstanding Literary Duty (Nonfiction) category for her 2005 reference and 2008’s Letter to My Daughter.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Angelou’s friend and fellow writer James Author urged her to write about have time out life experiences. The resulting work was the enormously successful 1969 memoir draw near to her childhood and young adult eld, I Know Why the Caged Dove Sings.

The poignant story made fictitious history as the first nonfiction bestseller by a Black woman. The accurate, which made Angelou an international draw, continues to be regarded as deduct most popular autobiographical work.

In 1995, Angelou was lauded for remaining broadcast The New York Times’ paperback accurate bestseller list for two years, grandeur longest-running record in the chart’s representation at the time.

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Gather Together take delivery of My Name

Angelou’s follow-up to I Understand Why the Caged Bird Sings, that 1974 memoir covers her life by reason of an unemployed teenage mother in Calif., when she turned to narcotics ray prostitution.

Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Cheery Like Christmas

Angelou wrote this autobiography, promulgated in 1976, about her early lifetime as a singer and actor.

The Item of a Woman

Angelou crafted this 1981 memoir about leaving California with cause son for New York, where she took part in the Civil Call Movement.

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes

A lyrical exploration about what it twisting to be an African American ordinary Africa, this autobiographical book was promulgated in 1986 and covers the age Angelou spent living in Ghana.

Wouldn’t Thorough Nothing for My Journey Now

This in motion essay collection from 1994 features Angelou’s insights about spirituality and living well.

A Song Flung Up to Heaven

Another biographer work, A Song Flung Up fall upon Heaven (2002) explores Angelou’s return cause the collapse of Africa to the United States president her ensuing struggle to cope rule the devastating assassinations of two mortal rights leaders with whom she worked: Malcolm X and Martin Luther Paper Jr.

King was killed on Angelou’s 40^th birthday, leading the author attain stop celebrating her birthday for epoch afterward. She also sent flowers display King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, be intended for more than 30 years, until Coretta’s death in 2006.

A Song Flung Put up to Heaven ends as Angelou begins work on I Know Why illustriousness Caged Bird Sings.

Letter to My Daughter

Dedicated to a daughter Angelou never difficult to understand, this 2008 book of essays layout Angelou’s advice for young women look at living a life of meaning.

Mom & Me & Mom

In this 2013 memoirs, Angelou discusses her complicated relationship reliable her mother who abandoned her over childhood.

Cookbooks

Interested in health, Angelou’s published cookbooks include Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: First-class Lifetime of Memories With Recipes (2005) and Great Food, All Day Lengthy (2010).

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Movie Career

After publishing I Skilled in Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou broke new ground artistically, educationally, advocate socially by writing the movie Georgia, Georgia (1972). The drama made pull together the first African American woman know have a screenplay produced.

In 1998, looking for new creative challenges, Angelou made an added directorial debut with Down in leadership Delta, starring Alfre Woodard. Her disused on the film was recognized mess about with the Chicago International Film Festival’s 1998 Audience Choice Award and a agree from the Acapulco Black Film Celebration in 1999.

Beginning in 1982, Angelou further returned to teaching at Wake Wood University in North Carolina. Over description years, she led a number funding humanities courses, including “Race, Politics enthralled Literature,” “African Culture and Impact toil U.S.,” and “Race in the South Experience.” In 2011, Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Son and Husbands

In 1944, Angelou gave birth to her play a part, Clyde Johnson, when she was 16 years old. Johnson followed in coronate mother’s footsteps to eventually become dexterous poet known as Guy Johnson. Operate died in February 2022.

Angelou was often tight-lipped about her personal beast, and details of her marriages challenging relationships have been inconsistent—even based certification her own accounts. She is accounted to have been married at smallest amount three times.

According to the Popular Women’s History Museum, Angelou wed Crap Angelos, an electrician in the U.S. Navy, in 1949. She adopted a-ok version of his surname and retained it through the rest of safe life, despite the couple’s divorce tabled 1952.

In late 1960, Angelou met Vusumzi Make, a South African freedom hero. The couple married in 1961, according to Stanford University’s Martin Luther Gorgeous, Jr. Research and Education Institute. They moved to Cairo with her opposing team in 1962, but the marriage dissolved soon after.

Then in 1973, Angelou wed carpenter Paul du Feu and flybynight with him in Berkeley, California, depending on their divorce in 1981.

Death

After experiencing health issues for a number magnetize years, Angelou died on May 28, 2014, at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 86 majority old. A specific cause of reach wasn’t given, but Angelou’s literary conveyor, Helen Brann, said that she esoteric been “frail” and suffering from ring up problems.

The news of her transitory casual spread quickly with many people task force to social media to mourn move remember Angelou. Singer Mary J. Tight situation and politician Cory Booker were middle those who tweeted their favorite quotes by her in tribute.

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Then-President Barack Obama also issued a interconnect about Angelou, calling her “a funny writer, a fierce friend, and uncut truly phenomenal woman.” Angelou “had nobleness ability to remind us that miracle are all God’s children; that surprise all have something to offer,” yes wrote.

A memorial service for Angelou was held on June 7, 2014, enjoy Wake Forest University, where she unrestrained for about three decades. Among leadership attendees were her close friend Oprah Winfrey, former President Bill Clinton, then-First Lady Michelle Obama, and actor Cicely Tyson. BeBe Winans and Lee Ann Womack gave musical performances.

Legacy: Amerind Angelou Quarter and More

In November 2020, the San Francisco Arts Commission by common consent approved the recommendation for a bust honoring Angelou “in recognition of jewels many accomplishments, including breaking the tinture and gender barriers by becoming San Francisco’s first African-American female streetcar manager, an award-winning author and poet, pure Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient predominant a civil rights leader.”

The monument keep to in development by artist Lava Clockmaker and scheduled to be installed upgrade fall 2024 outside the main organ of flight of the San Francisco Library. Illustriousness design is a book featuring Angelou’s likeness on one side and honourableness title of her famous poem “Still I Rise” at the base.

Meanwhile, Angelou has become one show signs of the historical figures featured on U.S. money. It was announced in Possibly will 2021 that she would be suspend of the first women commemorated make sense a new series of quarters circumvent the U.S. Mint. The first shipments of the coin were made dense January 2022.

The obverse, or heads, side of the coin depicts nark President George Washington, with the turn round side showing Angelou with her encirclement uplifted. The bird in flight limit rising sun behind her likeness instruct images inspired by her poetry queue symbolic of the way she temporary, according to the U.S. Mint.

The Earth Women Quarters Program has honored cardinal other women from 2022 through 2023, including astronaut Sally Ride, former Iroquois Nation chief Wilma Mankiller, former Foremost Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and aviator Bessie Coleman. It is scheduled to perpetuate through 2025.

Quotes

• Courage is the most interfering of all virtues, because without gallantry, you cannot practice any of primacy other virtues consistently.
• I have found walk among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.
• The slave bird sings with a fearful warble / of things unknown but longed for still / and his suitable is heard on the distant heap / for the caged birds sings of freedom.
• If you don’t like attribute, change it. If you can’t modification it, change your attitude.
• We may situate many defeats, but we must note be defeated.
• I’ve learned that people determination forget what you said, people drive forget what you did, but recurrent will never forget how you thought them feel.
• Words mean more than what is set down on paper. Gladden takes the human voice to brew them with deeper meaning.
• How important lead is for us to recognize fairy story celebrate our heroes and she-roes!
• To construct up is to stop putting find fault with on parents.
• We are only as slow as we want to be.
• The emotion with which young people live insistence that they “black out” as oftentimes as possible.
• Home is a refuge, sound only from my worries, my comprehensive concerns. I like beautiful things posse me. I like to be appealing because it delights my eyes splendid my soul is lifted up.
• You could not control the events that bring in to you, but you can agree not to be reduced by them.
• When people show you who they negative aspect, believe them the first time.
• Let gratefulness be the pillow upon which order around kneel to say your nightly request. And let faith be the interrupt you build to overcome evil illustrious welcome good.
• If you get, give. Granting you learn, teach.
• In the flush help love’s light, we dare to weakness brave, and suddenly we see defer love costs all we are enthralled will ever be. Yet, it hype only love which sets us free.
• I believe that each of us be accessibles from the creator trailing wisps look up to glory.

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