Maya Angelou
Angelou reciting her poem, "On the Pulse of Morning", at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, January 1993
Born	Marguerite Ann Johnson (1928-04-04) April 4, 1928 (age 84) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Occupation	Poet, civil rights activist, dancer, film producer, television producer, playwright, film director, author, actress, professor
Language	English
Ethnicity	African American
Period	1969–present
Genres	Autobiography
Literary movement	Civil rights
Notable work(s)	I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Influences Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Douglas Johnson, James Weldon Johnson, Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, Jessie Fauset, James Baldwin
www.mayaangelou.com

Maya Angelou ( /ˈmaɪ.ə ˈændʒəloʊ/;^[1][2] born Marguerite Ann Johnson; April 4, 1928)^[3] is an American author and poet. She has published six autobiographies, five books of essays, numerous books of poetry, and is credited with a long list of plays, movies, and television shows. She is one of the most decorated writers of her generation, with dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly acclaimed, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her first seventeen years, and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

Angelou's long list of occupations has included pimp, prostitute, night-club dancer and performer, castmember of the musical Porgy and Bess, coordinator for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, author, journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the days of decolonization, and actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. Since 1991, she has taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she holds the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. She was active in the Civil Rights movement, and worked with both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Since the 1990s she has made around eighty appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.

With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou was heralded as a new kind of memoirist, one of the first African American women who was able to publicly discuss her personal life. She is highly respected as a spokesperson of Black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of Black culture. Although attempts have been made to ban her books from some US libraries, her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide. Angelou's major works have been labelled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics have characterized them as autobiographies. She has made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes such as racism, identity, family, and travel. Angelou is best known for her autobiographies, but she is also an established poet, although her poems have received mixed reviews.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Marguerite Johnson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928,^[3] the second child of Bailey Johnson, a navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer.^[4] Angelou's older brother, Bailey Jr., nicknamed Marguerite "Maya", shortened from "my-a-sister".^[5] When Angelou was three, and her brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage"^[6] ended. Their father sent them to Stamps, Arkansas alone by train to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. In "an astonishing exception"^[7] to the harsh economics of African Americans of the time, Angelou's grandmother prospered financially during the Great Depression and World War II because the general store she owned sold needed basic commodities and because "she made wise and honest investments".^{[4][note 1]}

And Angelou's life has certainly been a full one: from the hardscrabble Depression era South to pimp, prostitute, supper-club chanteuse, performer in Porgy and Bess, coordinator for Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, journalist in Egypt and Ghana in the heady days of decolonization, comrade of Malcolm X, eyewitness to the Watts riots. She knew King and Malcolm, Billie Holiday and Abbey Lincoln.

Reviewer John McWhorter, The New Republic^[9]

Four years later, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning"^[10] and returned them to their mother's care in St. Louis. At the age of eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. She confessed it to her brother, who told the rest of their family. Freeman was found guilty, but was jailed for only one day. Four days after his release, he was murdered, probably by Angelou's uncles. Angelou became mute for almost five years,^[11] believing, as she has stated, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone..."^[12] According to Angelou's biographers it was during this period of silence when Angelou developed her extraordinary memory, her love for books and literature, and her ability to listen and observe the world around her.^[13]

Shortly after Freeman's murder, Angelou and her brother were sent back to their grandmother once again.^[14] Angelou credits a teacher and friend of her family, Mrs. Bertha Flowers, with helping her speak again. Flowers introduced her to authors such as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare,^[15] Edgar Allan Poe, Douglas Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, authors that would affect her life and career,^[13] as well as Black female artists like Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset.^[16] When Angelou was 14, she and her brother moved in with their mother once again; she had since moved to Oakland, California. During World War II, she attended George Washington High School while studying dance and drama on a scholarship at the California Labor School. Before graduating, she worked as the first Black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco.^[17] Three weeks after completing school, at the age of 17, she gave birth to her son, Clyde, who also became a poet.^{[18][note 2]}

Angelou's second autobiography, Gather Together in My Name, recounts her life from age 17 to 19 and "depicts a single mother's slide down the social ladder into poverty and crime."^[20] Angelou worked as "the front woman/business manager for prostitutes,"^[21] restaurant cook, and prostitute. She moved through a series of relationships, occupations, and cities as she attempted to raise her son without job training or advanced education.^[20]