Maya Angelou

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Angelou, Maya

(mī`ə ăn`jəlo͞o), 1928–2014, African-American writer and performer, b. St. Louis, Mo., as Marguerite Johnson. She toured Europe and Africa in the musical Porgy and Bess (1954–55), then sang in New York City nightclubs, joined the Harlem Writers Guild, and took part in several off-Broadway productions, including Genet's The Blacks and her own Cabaret for Freedom (1960). During the 1960s she was active in the African-American political movement; she subsequently moved to Cairo where she edited The Arab Observer and then spent several years in Ghana as editor of the African Review. During the 1970s she appeared on Broadway, in several feature films, and in the TV miniseries Roots. Although she wrote poems, plays, and short stories, all in a lush and lyrical style that was both lauded and criticized, she is best known for her six autobiographical volumes (1970–2002), the first and most popular of which, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which tells of her childhood in the segregated South. Her several volumes of poetry include And I Still Rise (1978). Angelou read her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Clinton in 1993. President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

Angelou, Maya (b. Marguerite Angelou Johnson)

(1928–  ) writer, poet, performer; born in St. Louis, Mo. An activist on behalf of African-American concerns, she settled in California after extensive travel. She had worked as a performer, actress, and teacher. She is known for her poetry and her autobiographical novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970).
References in periodicals archive ?
Maya Angelou was and still is a major part of our culture and lives.
Maya Angelou's message applies to all of us, no matter our background or experiences.
Angelou's poetry collections include "The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou" (1994) and "Phenomenal Woman" (1995), which is a collection of four poems and takes its title from a poem that originally appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1978.
Because Maya Angelou looms so very large, and because the myths of her life are her own creations, such a biography, necessarily years in the making, is warranted.
"Maya Angelou's name and poetry are synonymous with Civil Rights and elevating oneself and one's surrounding community," HMC Artistic Director Dustin Cates said.
Lupton presents readers with the second edition of her portrait of the life and works of esteemed American author Maya Angelou. The author has organized the main body of her text in nine chapters devoted to general information on the life and works of Angelou, autobiography as a genre, &lt;/I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings/&gt;, &lt;/Gather Together in My Name/&gt;, &lt; /SinginAE SwinginAE and GettingAE Merry Like Christmas/&gt;, &lt; The Heart of a Woman/&gt;, and other of the authorAEs main works.
Cleveland's Dianne McIntyre has made a large group work based on the poems of Maya Angelou. Her cast features three former Ailey stars, now living in St.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Maya Angelou, and Rosa Parks.
Postal Service issued a new limited edition ''Forever'' stamp Tuesday, honoring the late poet, author and civil rights champion Maya Angelou, but it carries a quote that apparently originated elsewhere.
MAYA Angelou, the late, great black American author and civil rights activist, was once described by President Barack Obama as "a brilliant writer, a erce friend and a truly phenomenal woman."
NEW YORK (AP) -- Maya Angelou's iconic words and lyrics will blend with hip-hop beats for a new album called "Caged Bird Songs."
Two of mine have passed very recently - actresses and activists Ruby Dee and Maya Angelou.