Maya Angelou

Biography

Date of Birth 4 April 1928, St. Louis, Missouri, USA Birth Name Marguerite Annie Johnson Height 6' (1.83 m) Spouse Paul Du Feu (18 January 1974 - 1981) (divorced) Vusumzi Make (1960 - 1963) (divorced) Tosh Angelos (1950 - 1952) (divorced) Trivia Received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1986. She read her poem "On the Pulse Into Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton on 1/20/93. She was the first black and female cable car conductor in San Francisco. Her nickname "Maya" came from her older brother, Bailey, who called her "My" and "Mine". She recorded an album for Liberty Records in 1957 titled "Miss Calypso". At age seven, Maya was raped by her mother's boyfriend. She wasn't going to tell anyone, but her brother Bailey persuaded her to tell him who raped her. As a result, the man was killed. Maya believed her spoken word caused his death, and as a result refused to speak for years. Mother of Guy Johnson, author of the novel "Standing at the Scratch Line." Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1998. The title of her memoir "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" comes from the poem "Sympathy" (specifically, the last stanza) by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Attended George Washington High School in San Francisco. Honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 133, pp. 14-25. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005. Was nominated for Broadway's 1973 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic) for "Look Away." Speaks fluent French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and West African Fanti. She was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 2000 by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D.C. Thanked by Fiona Apple in the liner notes of her album "Tidal". She recorded an album with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, called "Been Found" in 1996. Considers Oprah Winfrey her dear friend and the daughter she always wanted. Toured Europe and Africa in an American production cast of 'Porgy and Bess' between 1954 and 1955. Hosted and was a subject-matter expert for the instructional telecourse "Humanities Through the Arts". Personal Quotes Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style. If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain. At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice. I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass. The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education. Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives. Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable. Everything in the universe has rhythm. Everything dances. On love: The loss of young first love is so painful that it borders on the ludicrous. On childhood: Few, if any survive their teens. Most surrender to the vague but murderous pressure of adult conformity. On experience: A cynical young person is almost the saddest sight to see, because it means that he or she has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing. [observation at 85] I've still not written as well as I want to. I want to write so that the reader in Des Moines, Iowa, in Kowloon, China, in Cape Town, South Africa can say, 'You know, that's the truth. I wasn't there , and I wasn't a six-foot black girl, but that's the truth'. I like to have guns around. I don't like to carry them. I think men are as crazy as they were, and women as crazy as they were.. I've never had a dislike for men. I've been badly mistreated by some. But I've been loved greatly by some. I married a lot of them. [on reconnecting with her mother who had abandoned her ten years before] I didn't know her. I didn't trust her. But I began to like her because she was kind. I said, 'I'd like to call you Lady'. She told everybody, "Call me Lady from now on'. Amazing. And she was kind to people, all sorts of people - white ones and black ones and Spanish-speaking ones. If they needed something, my mother was the one. [on Michelle Obama] Philosophers tell us that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Mrs. Obama is as if it doesn't touch her. She hasn't tried to become anybody else's idea of First Lady. She has remained herself, with her grace, her gentleness, and her sense of humor. That she would dare to wear clothes off the rack, or go out and garden, or have a grandmother in the White House - she knows how to be a public figure without being separate from her family.