Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. Angelou’s most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. Her books center on themes including racism, identity, family and travel.
About Maya Angelou in brief
Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Angelou’s most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some US libraries. Her books center on themes including racism, identity, family and travel. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem \”On the Pulse of Morning\” at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961. She died on May 28, 2014, at the age of 89. She is survived by her brother, Bailey Jr., and her mother, Vivian Johnson, a nurse and card dealer in St. Louis, Missouri. Her brother nicknamed her Marguerite “Maya” or “Mya Sister”, derived from her nickname for her mother. She also had a son, Bailey III, who died in a car crash when he was 18 years old. She had a daughter, Maya Angelou, who was born on November 4, 1928, in Stamps, Arkansas, and died on December 1, 2014.
She has a daughter and a son-in-law, both of whom have died in recent years. Her grandson, Bailey Johnson Jr., is the author of the memoirs, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “I Love You, My Love, My Baby”. Angelou died on November 28, 2013, at age 89. Her son Bailey Johnson, Jr. is the writer of “I love you, my baby, my lover, my best friend, my brother, my sister, my daughter, my wife, my mother, my grandmother, my grandfather, my aunt, my uncle, my cousin, my great-grandmother, my niece, my nephew, my godmother, and my aunt’s sister” Angelou had a great love for books and literature, and her love for the world and her ability to listen and observe the world around her would affect her life as well as her own. She wrote several books, including the autobiographies “I know why the caged bird sings” and” “The Caged Birds Sings”. She was also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays and movies. She worked as a fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. In 1982 she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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This page is based on the article Maya Angelou published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
