Martin Luther King Jr., a close friend of Angelou’s, was assassinated on her birthday (April 4) in 1968. She also won two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, for her 2005 cookbook and 2008’s Letter to My Daughter. Kennedy’s inauguration.Īngelou went on to win a Grammy Award (best spoken word album) for the audio version of the poem.Īngelou’s career has seen numerous accolades, including the Chicago International Film Festival’s 1998 Audience Choice Award and a nod from the Acapulco Black Film Festival in 1999 for Down in the Delta. The occasion marked the first inaugural recitation since 1961 when Robert Frost delivered his poem “The Gift Outright” at John F. One of her most famous works, Angelou wrote this poem especially for and recited at President Bill Clinton’s inaugural ceremony in January 1993. In 1964, upon returning to the United States, Angelou helped Malcolm X set up the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which disbanded after his assassination the following year. In Ghana, she also joined a community of “Revolutionist Returnees” exploring pan-Africanism and became close with human rights activist and Black nationalist leader Malcolm X. Angelou also held a position at the University of Ghana for a time. and Cicely Tyson.Īngelou went on to earn a Tony Award nomination for her role in the play Look Away (1973) and an Emmy Award nomination for her work on the television miniseries Roots (1977), among other honors.Īngelou spent much of the 1960s abroad, living first in Egypt and then in Ghana, working as an editor and a freelance writer. In 1961, Angelou appeared in an off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s The Blacks with James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett Jr. She landed a role in a touring production of Porgy and Bess, later appearing in the off-Broadway production Calypso Heat Wave (1957) and releasing her first album, Miss Calypso (1957).Ī member of the Harlem Writers Guild and a civil rights activist, Angelou organized and starred in the musical revue Cabaret for Freedom as a benefit for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, also serving as the SCLC’s northern coordinator. In the mid-1950s, Angelou’s career as a performer began to take off. There she won a scholarship to study dance and acting at the California Labor School.Īlso during this time, Angelou became the first Black female cable car conductor - a job she held only briefly - in San Francisco. She returned to Arkansas and spent years as a virtual mute.ĭuring World War II, Angelou moved to San Francisco, California. So traumatized by the experience, Angelou stopped talking. As vengeance for the sexual assault, Angelou’s uncles killed the boyfriend. She also suffered at the hands of a family associate around the age of 7: During a visit with her mother, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Her parents split up when she was very young, and she and her older brother, Bailey, were sent to live with their father’s mother, Anne Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas.Īs an African American, Angelou experienced firsthand racial prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas. 1981)īEST KNOWN FOR: Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist, poet and award-winning author known for her acclaimed 1969 memoir, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,’ and her numerous poetry and essay collections.Īngelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. HUSBAND: Tosh Angelos (sailor, married five years, div. 1945 out of wedlock, see Caged Bird Sings) The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left. Today is the 93rd birthday of the poet Maya Angelou.
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