The Life of Maya Angelou
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E ncouraged by her friend James Baldwin, a playwright and novel- ist, Angelou began work on the first installment of her autobiogra- phy, telling her story from childhood through her son’s birth. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was published in 1969 and was nominated for the Na- tional Book Award. It gained national attention and was a New York Times bestseller for two years. The book drew the notice of black students at Wake Forest University, who invited Angelou to speak during Black Awareness Week in 1973. Though hesitant because of the racism she had experienced growing up in the South, she needed the speaking fees, she said, so she “wrapped her courage around her purse” and came to Winston-Salem. She would return to Wake Forest sev- eral times over the next several years, and the university gave her an honorary doctorate in 1977. Her artistic output was varied. Her script for the 1972 film “Georgia, Geor- gia” — about a black woman killed for having a white lover — was the first by a black woman to be filmed, and it earned her a Pulitzer Prize nomination. She appeared in the landmark televi- sion miniseries “Roots” in 1977 and adapted “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” into a 1979 TV movie starring Diahann Carroll and Esther Rolle. She wrote four more autobiogra- phies in the 1970s and 1980s, including “Gather Together in My Name” and “All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes.” Other writing credits included “Sister, Sister,” a 1982 TV movie, and multiple collections of poetry. One collection, 1971’s “Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie,” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She married Welsh carpenter Paul du Feu in 1973, but they divorced eight years later. In 1982, Angelou became the Reyn- olds Professor in American Studies at Wake Forest, a lifetime appointment, teaching classes on African culture and literature, poetry and Shakespeare. Her position brought notoriety to the uni- versity, but some critics objected to her hiring, viewing her more as a celebrity than an academic. She served as the first chairperson of Winston-Salem’s National Black Theatre Festival in 1989, helping to lure such stars as Lou Gossett Jr. and Cicely Tyson to town. A ngelou struggled to raise her son on her own. She held a succession of jobs, including dancing in a nightclub, waitressing, cooking in restaurants, scraping paint off cars and, briefly, prostitution. She was rejected from joining the Women’s Army Corps because the California Labor School was on the House Un-American Activities Committee’s list of communist sympa- thizers. She flirted with drug usage, until a friend forced her to watch him shoot up heroin, which galvanized her to reject drugs. In the early 1950s, she married Tosh Angelos, a Greek American sailor. They divorced after three years, but she would take a version of his last name as her professional name. She got a gig singing and dancing at a San Francisco nightclub, where she shared billing with future co- median Phyllis Diller. She toured 22 countries in the mid-1950s with a production of “Porgy and Bess” and put out an album, “Miss Calypso.” Angelou moved to New York in the late 1950s, joined the Harlem Writers Guild and the civil-rights movement, and appeared in an award-winning off- Broadway play, “The Blacks.” She moved with activ- ist Vusumzi Make to Egypt, where she was an editor of an English-language newsweekly. After they split up, she moved to Ghana and worked as a teacher and writer, before returning to the United States in 1964. She was supposed to help Malcolm X build his Organization of Afro-American Unity, but he was assassinated first. She then lectured at UCLA and wrote and directed “Black, Blues, Black,” a 10-part, 1968 TV series on black culture. She also worked on Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign; he was assassinated on her 40th birthday. CASSANDRA SHERRILL/JOURNAL Sources: Journal archives; The Associated Press; Los Angeles Times; The Washington Post; mayaangelou.com MAYAANGELOU.COM Angelou met with Malcolm X in Ghana in 1964. AP PHOTO Angelou poses in 1971 with a copy of her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” WARNER BROTHERS PHOTO Angelou (top) with Cicely Tyson in “Roots.” AP PHOTO Angelou received the 13th annual Matrix Award from the New York Chapter of Women in Communications in 1983. Also at the ceremony were editor Jane Bryant Quinn (from left), Sen. Edward Kennedy and syndicated columnist Mary McGrory. AP PHOTOS Bill Clinton greets Angelou after her poetry reading at his 1993 inauguration. JOURNAL PHOTO LEFT: Barack Obama awards Angelou the 2010 Medal of Freedom in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 15, 2011. ABOVE: Angelou blows kisses to the crowd at her public 80th birthday celebration in Corpen- ing Plaza on April 19, 2008. M aya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis on April 4, 1928, but moved to Long Beach, Calif., shortly after. After her parents split up when she was 3, she and her brother, Bailey, were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Ark. It was Bailey who gave her the nickname Maya. In Stamps, Angelou was exposed to poverty, seg- regation and racism, but also the deep faith found in the black community. After four years, Angelou and her brother went to live with their mother, who had moved back to St. Louis. Her mother’s boyfriend lived with them, and he raped Angelou when she was 7. He was tried and convicted, but was found mur- dered within a few days. Because she had testi- fied against him, she believed that her voice had caused his death, and she remained mostly mute for five years. Angelou didn’t begin to talk again until a family friend in Stamps, where she and Bailey returned to live, shared literature with her and told her that words had more power when spoken aloud. Angelou read voraciously and began writing her own poems. She and Bailey went to live with their mother again in San Francisco. Angelou won a scholarship to study dance and drama at the California Labor School, but dropped out at 14 to become the city’s first black female cable car con- ductor. She gave birth to a son, Guy, a few weeks after graduating high school. A ngelou was introduced to a wider audience when her reading of her poem “On the Pulse of the Morning” at Bill Clinton’s 1993 presi- dential inauguration was broadcast live around the word. The album version of her performing the poem won her the first of her three spoken-word Grammy Awards. Angelou became involved in her adopted community of Winston-Salem well beyond her teaching at Wake For- est. She was a member of Mount Zion Baptist Church and participated in countless events to raise money for is- sues including the arts, health care and child welfare. Among the local institutions named for her are Winston-Salem State Uni- versity’s Maya Angelou Institute for the Improvement of Child and Family Education; The Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity at WFU School of Medicine; the Maya Angelou Research Center for Minority Health at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center; and Forsyth Medical Center’s Maya Angelou Women’s Health & Wellness Center. Along with two more autobiogra- phies, she published two cookbooks, each including stories from her life, and several children’s books. Hallmark put out a line of greeting cards and other products bearing her name and verse. She kept her hand in the onscreen arts world, acting in and writing poetry for John Singleton’s 1993 film “Po- etic Justice” and directing “Down in the Delta,” a 1998 film starring Alfre Woodard. She composed poetry for and narrated the 2008 documentary about Kwanzaa, “The Black Candle,” and ap- peared on “Sesame Street.” In 2011, she criticized the paraphras- ing of a quote on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., say- ing it made him look like “an arrogant twit.” The quote was later removed. She was awarded an NAACP Image Award in 1997, the National Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Tough beginnings: 1928 to the 1940s Finding her literary voice: The 1970s and 1980s National and local renown: The 1990s to 2014 Searching for her place: The 1950s and 1960s The Life of Maya Angelou
Transcript of The Life of Maya Angelou
Encouraged by her friend James Baldwin, a playwright and novel-ist, Angelou began work on the
first installment of her autobiogra-phy, telling her story from childhood through her son’s birth. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was published in 1969 and was nominated for the Na-tional Book Award. It gained national attention and was a New York Times bestseller for two years.
The book drew the notice of black students at Wake Forest University, who invited Angelou to speak during Black Awareness Week in 1973. Though hesitant because of the racism she had experienced growing up in the South, she needed the speaking fees, she said, so she “wrapped her courage around her purse” and came to Winston-Salem.
She would return to Wake Forest sev-eral times over the next several years, and the university gave her an honorary doctorate in 1977.
Her artistic output was varied. Her script for the 1972 film “Georgia, Geor-gia” — about a black woman killed for having a white lover — was the first by a black woman to be filmed, and it earned her a Pulitzer Prize nomination. She appeared in the landmark televi-sion miniseries “Roots” in 1977 and adapted “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” into a 1979 TV movie starring Diahann Carroll and Esther Rolle.
She wrote four more autobiogra-phies in the 1970s and 1980s, including “Gather Together in My Name” and “All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes.”
Other writing credits included “Sister, Sister,” a 1982 TV movie, and multiple collections of poetry. One collection, 1971’s “Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie,” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
She married Welsh carpenter Paul du Feu in 1973, but they divorced eight years later.
In 1982, Angelou became the Reyn-olds Professor in American Studies at Wake Forest, a lifetime appointment, teaching classes on African culture and literature, poetry and Shakespeare. Her
position brought notoriety to the uni-versity, but some critics objected to her hiring, viewing her more as a celebrity than an academic.
She served as the first chairperson of Winston-Salem’s National Black Theatre Festival in 1989, helping to lure such stars as Lou Gossett Jr. and Cicely Tyson to town.
Angelou struggled to raise her son on her own. She held a succession of jobs, including dancing in a nightclub, waitressing, cooking
in restaurants, scraping paint off cars and, briefly, prostitution. She was rejected from joining the Women’s Army Corps because the California Labor School was on the House Un-American Activities
Committee’s list of communist sympa-thizers. She flirted with drug usage, until a friend forced her to watch him shoot up heroin, which galvanized her to reject drugs.
In the early 1950s, she married Tosh Angelos, a Greek American sailor.
They divorced after three years, but she would take a version of his last name as her professional name. She got a gig singing and dancing at a San Francisco nightclub, where she shared billing with future co-median Phyllis Diller. She toured 22 countries in the mid-1950s with a production of “Porgy and Bess” and put out an album, “Miss Calypso.”
Angelou moved to New York in the late 1950s, joined the Harlem Writers Guild and the civil-rights movement, and appeared in an award-winning off-Broadway play, “The Blacks.” She moved with activ-ist Vusumzi Make to Egypt, where she was an editor of an English-language newsweekly. After they split up, she moved to Ghana and worked as a teacher
and writer, before returning to the United States in 1964. She was supposed to help Malcolm X build his Organization of Afro-American Unity, but he was assassinated first. She then lectured at UCLA and wrote and directed “Black, Blues, Black,” a 10-part, 1968 TV series on black culture. She also worked on Martin Luther King’s Poor People’s Campaign; he was assassinated on her 40th birthday.
CASSANDRA SHERRILL/JOURNALSources: Journal archives; The Associated Press; Los Angeles Times; The Washington Post; mayaangelou.com
MAYAANGELOU.COM
Angelou met with Malcolm X in Ghana in 1964.
AP PHOTO
Angelou poses in 1971 with a copy of her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
WARNER BROTHERS PHOTO
Angelou (top) with Cicely Tyson in “Roots.”
AP PHOTO
Angelou received the 13th annual Matrix Award from the New York Chapter of Women in Communications in 1983. Also at the ceremony were editor Jane Bryant Quinn (from left), Sen. Edward Kennedy and syndicated columnist Mary McGrory.
AP PHOTOS
Bill Clinton greets Angelou after her poetry reading at his 1993 inauguration.
JOURNAL PHOTO
LEFT: Barack Obama awards Angelou the 2010 Medal of Freedom in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 15, 2011.
ABOVE: Angelou blows kisses to the crowd at her public 80th birthday celebration in Corpen-ing Plaza on April 19, 2008.
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis on April 4, 1928, but moved to Long Beach, Calif., shortly after.
After her parents split up when she was 3, she and her brother, Bailey, were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Ark. It was Bailey who gave her the nickname Maya.
In Stamps, Angelou was exposed to poverty, seg-regation and racism, but also the deep faith found in the black community.
After four years, Angelou and her brother went to live with their mother, who had moved back to St. Louis. Her mother’s boyfriend lived with them, and he raped Angelou when she was 7. He was tried and convicted, but was found mur-dered within a few days. Because she had testi-fied against him, she believed that her voice had caused his death, and she remained mostly mute for five years. Angelou didn’t begin to talk again until a family friend in Stamps, where she and Bailey returned to live, shared literature with her and told her that words had more power when spoken aloud.
Angelou read voraciously and began writing her own poems. She and Bailey went to live with their mother again in San Francisco. Angelou won a scholarship to study dance and drama at the California Labor School, but dropped out at 14 to become the city’s first black female cable car con-ductor. She gave birth to a son, Guy, a few weeks after graduating high school.
Angelou was introduced to a wider audience when her reading of her poem “On the Pulse of the
Morning” at Bill Clinton’s 1993 presi-dential inauguration was broadcast live around the word. The album version of her performing the poem won her the first of her three spoken-word Grammy Awards.
Angelou became involved in her adopted community of Winston-Salem well beyond her teaching at Wake For-est. She was a member of Mount Zion
Baptist Church and participated in countless events to raise money for is-sues including the arts, health care and child welfare.
Among the local institutions named for her are Winston-Salem State Uni-versity’s Maya Angelou Institute for the Improvement of Child and Family Education; The Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity at WFU School of Medicine; the Maya Angelou Research Center for Minority Health at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center; and
Forsyth Medical Center’s Maya Angelou Women’s Health & Wellness Center.
Along with two more autobiogra-phies, she published two cookbooks, each including stories from her life, and several children’s books. Hallmark put out a line of greeting cards and other products bearing her name and verse.
She kept her hand in the onscreen arts world, acting in and writing poetry for John Singleton’s 1993 film “Po-etic Justice” and directing “Down in the Delta,” a 1998 film starring Alfre
Woodard. She composed poetry for and narrated the 2008 documentary about Kwanzaa, “The Black Candle,” and ap-peared on “Sesame Street.”
In 2011, she criticized the paraphras-ing of a quote on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., say-ing it made him look like “an arrogant twit.” The quote was later removed.
She was awarded an NAACP Image Award in 1997, the National Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.
Tough beginnings:1928 to the 1940s
Finding her literary voice: The 1970s and 1980s
National and local renown: The 1990s to 2014
Searching for her place: The 1950s and 1960s
The Life of Maya Angelou
