Maya Angelou - 1928
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By Melanie Seda and Shelly LaidleyBelleville Township High School-East
Belleville, Illinois
Read other essays about Maya Angelou written by California student
Monica Gracia and Arkansas students Ashley Batterton and Charla Tidwell.I. Biography
On April 4, 1928, a baby girl named Marguerite entered the world to proud parents Bailey and Vivian Baxter Johnson. Her name eventually changed to Maya because of her brother, Bailey's preference to call her "Maya" instead of "my sister." Early in her childhood, her parents divorced, and she and her brother resided in Stamps, Arkansas with their grandmother. Every now and then, they visited with their mother in St. Louis. At only seven and a half, during one of these visits, her mother's boyfriend raped her. Afraid, she finally tells her brother about the incident and, shortly after, her rapist was found dead. Because she thought her words had killed him, Angelou remained mute for five years.
After graduating from Lafayette country training School in 1940, Angelou and her brother moved to San Francisco to reunite with their mother, who had recently remarried. While in high school, Angelou received a two-year scholarship to study dance and drama at the California Labor School. In 1945, she become the unwed mother of a son, Clyde, whom she called Guy. To support herself and her son, Angelou had a variety of jobs. These included the first black San Francisco streetcar conductor and a Creole style cook.
In 1952, Angelou married Tosh Angelos, a Greek sailor she met when she worked at a record shop in San Francisco. Angelos was an atheist, and Angelou very spiritual, so the marriage did not last long. Sometime in the early 1950's, Angelou began her career as a dancer and singer. Angelou had a way with audiences that made up for her lack of skill in certain areas. She landed a job in the San Francisco club "The Purple Onion", which resulted in her touring twenty-two European countries with the production Porgy and Bess, in which she portrayed a character named Ruby. She also appeared in the very popular "Al &Rita Show," where she sometimes danced with host, Alvin Ailey. Angelou taught modern dance at Habima Theatre in Tel Aviv, Israel and Rome Opera House.
In addition to private studies, Angelou spent a lot of time studying with dancing legends such as Martha Graham. Also, she studied drama with Frank Silvera and Gene Frankel. Afterwards, she returned to New York where she sang in the Apollo Theatre in Harlem and became a member of the Harlem Literary Guild. At this time, Angelou appeared in the Obie winning show "The Blacks," and wrote and performed in "Cabaret for Freedom" in collaboration with Godfrey Cambridge. Martin Luther King Jr. asked her to be a northern coordinator for the southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1960. She met a man named Vusumzi Make, a fellow civil rights activist. Having fallen in love, the two married and Angelou moved with Vusumzi to Cairo. In three years, the marriage ended.
Following her failed marriage, she moved to Ghana where she felt very much at home. She held various jobs while in Africa including associate editor of the Arab Observer, administrator for the School of Music and Drama at the University of Ghana, and free-lance writer for the African Review. She appeared in Mother Courage at the University of Ghana and also in Meduca , in Hollywood. One finds it hard to believe that she had time in between all of her commitments to write a two-act drama, The Clawing Within, and a two-act musical titled "Adojoa Amissah," which were unfortunately not published.
The year 1970 marked the publication of her most famous work, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This work, the first in a series of published autobiographical books, was nominated for the National Book Award. Although controversial, Angelou posed for the first near-nude centerfold for Cosmopolitan Magazine. She met Paul Du Feu in the process and later married him.
In 1972, Angelou made the record books again, becoming the first black woman to have an original script produced for her screenplay Georgia, Georgia. Angelou moved back to California, this time to Sonoma (the wine country). President Ford appointed her to the American Revolution Council. In 1976, she became a grandmother with the birth of Colin Ashanti Johnson. Four years later, Angelou divorced Paul De Feu.
Throughout her life, Maya Angelou has made a famed list of achievements. In addition to all the previously mentioned awards and distinctions, Ladies Home Journal crowned Angelou Woman of the Year in 1976. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, received two Grammy Awards and three nominations for Best Spoken Word for Non-Musical Album. Angelou also won the NAACP Spingarn Award and more than fifty honorary degrees. She reportedly earns $15,000 per lecture. Amazingly, along with English, she speaks French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and West African Fanti. Another tremendous achievement of Angelou is that she had three books on the New York Times Best Seller Book List for ten consecutive weeks. She received a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut in Look Away and nominations for an Emmy Award for her portrayal of Nyo Boto in Roots . Angelou holds a Coveted Golden Eagle Award from the Public Broadcasting System and a Horatio Alger award. Also, Angelou holds a lifetime job as the Reynolds Professor of America Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC.
Angelou possesses a very interesting writing process. Because she hates loud noise and other distractions, she does most of her writing in a hotel room near her home in Winston-Salem. She likes to begin very early, before 5:30 AM, and is armed with a few key items: "yellow pad," "Bible," bottle of Sherry, a dictionary, thesaurus, and a deck of cards for solitaire.
Today, Angelou lives in North Carolina and treasures her family gatherings in which she provides great cooking. Some of her close friends include Toni Morrison, Oprah Winfrey, Coretta Scott King, Quincy Jones, Shana Alexander, and Norman Lear.
II. Publications
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1970
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie, 1971
Gather Together in My Name, 1974
Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well, 1975
Singin' and Swingin' and Getting' Merry Like Christmas, 1976
And Still I Rise, 1978
The Heart of a Woman, 1981
Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? , 1983
Now Sheba Sings the Song, 1987
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, 1991
Life Doesn't Frighten Me, 1993
On the Pulse of Morning, 1993
Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, 1993
Phenomenal Woman, 1995
Brave and Startling Truth, 1995
Even the Stars Look Lonesome, 1997
I Shall Not Be Moved, 1997
III. Interviews with Author
To view an interview with Maya Angelou in which she expresses her thoughts on diverse
issues such as President Clinton, civil rights, spirituality, marriage, and the importance of reading and writing in today's society, a great website to visit is:
IV. Links to Related Topics
A great website to visit in order to find more information on Maya Angelou is Another link that provides information about Angelou's life, works, and pictures is
V. How to Contact Professor Maya Angelou VI. Sources Been Found Page. [online] Hall, Joseph.[online] Maya Angelou. [online]
This essay was submitted by students of Kimberly Richey, an English teacher at Belleville Township High School East, in Illinois.
Wake Forest University
P.O. Box 7314
Winston-Salem, NC
27109
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