Biography on maya angelou

Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar Maya Angelou was a world-famous author. She was best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.

On April 4, , Marguerite Ann Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Due to her parents’ tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce, Angelou went to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas at an early age. Her older brother, Bailey, gave Angelou her nickname “Maya.”

Returning to her mother’s care briefly at the age of seven, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. He was later jailed and then killed when released from jail. Believing that her confession of the trauma had a hand in the man’s death, Angelou became mute for six years. During her mutism and into her teens, she igen lived with her grandmother in Arkansas.

Angelou’s interest in the written word and the English language was evident from an early age. Throughout her childhood, she wrote essays, poe

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Maya Angelou

Who Was Maya Angelou?

A multitalented writer and performer, Maya Angelou is best known for her work as an author and poet. Her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by a Black woman. Some of her famous poems include “Phenomenal Woman,” “Still I Rise,” and “On the Pulse of Morning,” which she recited at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in and which earned her a Grammy Award. Angelou also enjoyed a career as a Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor and singer in plays, musicals, and onscreen. She became the first Black woman to have a screenplay produced with the movie Georgia, Georgia. In her work as a civil rights activist, she collaborated with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, among others. The Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient died in May at age

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Marguerite Ann Johnson
BORN: April 4,
DIED: May 28,
BIRTHPLACE: St. Louis, Missouri
SPOUSES: Tosh Angelos (c. ), Vusum

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Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. She was an author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. She was best known for her seven autobiographical books: Mom & Me & Mom (Random House, ); Letter to My Daughter (Random House, ); All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (Random House, ); The Heart of a Woman (Random House, ); Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (Random House, ); Gather Together in My Name (Random House, ); and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Random House, ), which was nominated for the National Book Award.

Among her volumes of poetry are A Brave and Startling Truth (Random House, ); The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (Random House, );&