Ja’Nessa Sutton

2-9-11

Pd. 2ab

Maya Angelou is a poet, civil rights activist, dancer, film producer, television producer,
playwright, film director, author, actress, and professor. She was born Marguerite Annie Johnson
on April 28, 1928 in St. Louis Missouri. Her parents, Bailey Johnson and Vivian Johnso,
marriage ended and Angelou along with her younger brother were sent to live with their father’s
mother, Annie Henderson, in Stamps Arkansas. Her brother Bailey Jr. gave her the nickname
Maya. At the age of eight visiting her mother in Chicago, her mother’s boyriend Mr. Freeman,
sexually molested her. She confessed this to her brother who told their uncles which led to the
death of Freeman after his four day jail sentence. His body was foud kicked to death the next
day. Angelou was mute for the next several years because she believed her voice was the cause
of Freeman’s death. After his death Angelou and her brother were sent back to live with their
grandmother.

She spoke again at the age of thirteen. She and her brother lived with their mother in San
Francisco where she attended Mission High School. She won a scholarship to study dance and
drama at San Francisco's Labor School. She dropped out of school in her teens to become San
Francisco's first African American female cable car conductor. She went back to high school, but
became pregnant in her senior year and graduated weeks before giving birth to her son, Guy. She
left home at 16 and worked as a waitress and cook to support herself and her son. In 1952, she
married a Greek sailor named Anastasios Angelopulos. She became a nightclub singer and took
the name Maya Angelou. Although the marriage did not last, her performing career blossomed.
She toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess in 1954 and 1955. Studied
modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows and
recorded her first record album, Calypso Lady in 1957.

She fell in love with a South African civil rights activist, Vusumzi Make. In 1960, they
moved, with Angelou's son, to Cairo, Egypt. In Cairo, Angelou became editor of the English
language weekly The Arab Observer. Angelou and Guy later moved to Ghana, where she joined
a group of African American expatriates. She taught as an instructor and assistant administrator
at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama. Working as feature editor for The
African Review and wrote for The Ghanaian Times and the Ghanaian Broadcasting Company.
While in Africa she became fluent in may languages such as French, Spanish, Italian etc. She
met Malcolm X when he visited Ghana and had plans to help him start an organization. Malcolm
X died shortly after her arrival back to America ending their plans. His assasination on her
birthday left her distressed and with the help of a friend, James Baldwin, she founf comfort in
writing.
 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a book that tells the story of her life from her childhood in
Arkansas to the birth of her child. It also tells of the racial discrimination she dealt with while
growing up. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published in 1970 and become an enormous
success.

Angelou became a national figure in the following years, books of her poetry and
autobiography gave her an internationl following. She was demanded for teachering and
lecturers. She wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the film Georgia, Georgia in
1972. Her screenplay, the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated
for a Pulitzer Prize. She has appeared in movies such as Roots and her writing in Poetic Justice.
The list of her published writing includes more than 30 titles. Beginning with Just Give Me a
Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971). Books of her stories and essays include Wouldn't Take
Nothing For My Journey Now (1993) and Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997). She has
continued the compelling narrative of her life in the books Gather Together in My Name (1974)
etc. Angelou has won numerous awards for her writing and is one of the most notable African
American poets. Her writing has influenced many young peots and still continues to do so today.