Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was an American author and poet. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than 50 years. More
She received dozens of awards and over 30 honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of seventeen and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson of black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of Black culture. Attempts have been made to ban her books from some US libraries, but her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide. Angelou's major works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics have characterized them as autobiographies. She 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.
Maya Angelou timeline
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Maya Angelou is born
Marguerite Johnson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4 1928. Her father, Bailey Johnson, was a doorman and navy dietitian and her mother... Read more
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Maya Angelou Gives Birth to Guy Johnson
When Angelou was 13, she and her brother returned to live with her mother in San Francisco. During World War II, she attended George Washington... Read more
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Maya Angelou Becomes First Black Female Streetcar Conductor
My mother said, "Yes, but do you want the job?" And I said yes, and she said, "Go get it." "Here, I'll give you money. Every day, you go down... Read more
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Maya Angelou marries Tosh Angelos
In 1952, she married a Greek sailor named Tosh Angelos. When she began her career as a nightclub singer, she took the professional name Maya... Read more
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Maya Angelou tours with the opera Porgy and Bess
Blevins Davis and Robert Breen produced a revival in 1952 which restored much of the music cut in the Crawford version, including many of the... Read more
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Maya Angelou records her first album Miss Calypso
This reissue was probably motivated by the exotica-space age pop revival. The cover, after all, features Angelou draped in a slip of a red dress,... Read more
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Maya Angelou becomes Northern Coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
In the late 1950s, Angelou joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she met a number of major African American authors, including James Baldwin, who... Read more
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Maya Angelou Publishes I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the 1969 autobiography about the early years of African-American writer and poet Maya Angelou. The first in a... Read more
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Georgia, Georgia first script by an African American woman to be filmed
A trailblazer in film and television, Dr. Angelou wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia. Her script, the... Read more
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Maya Angelou receives Pulitzer Prize Nomination
Poems of love and regret, of racial strife and confrontation, songs of people and songs of the heart - all are charged with Maya Angelou's zest for... Read more
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Maya Angelou marries Paul du Feu
In 1973, Angelou married Paul du Feu, a British-born carpenter and remodeler, and moved to Sonoma, California with him. The years to follow were... Read more
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Maya Angelou recites On the Pulse of Morning at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton
In 1993, she recited her poem On the Pulse of Morning at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural... Read more
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Maya Angelou Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
Maya Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on February 15, 2011 by President Barak Obama. Dr. Angelou also received the... Read more
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Maya Angelou Dies
All my work, my life, everything I do is about survival, not just bare, awful, plodding survival, but survival with grace and faith. While one may... Read more