Angelou credits a teacher and friend of her family, Mrs. She attended the Lafayette County Training School, in Stamps, a Rosenwald School. Shortly after Freeman's murder, when Angelou was eight and her brother nine, Angelou and her brother were sent back to their grandmother. To know her life story is to simultaneously wonder what on earth you have been doing with your own life and feel glad that you didn't have to go through half the things she has. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone." According to Marcia Ann Gillespie and her colleagues, who wrote a biography about Angelou, it was during this period of silence when Angelou developed her extraordinary memory, her love for books and literature, and her ability to listen and observe the world around her. Angelou became mute for almost five years, believing, as she stated, "I thought, my voice killed him I killed that man, because I told his name. Four days after his release, he was murdered, probably by Angelou's uncles. Freeman was found guilty but was jailed for only one day. She told her brother, who told the rest of their family. At the age of eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, a man named Freeman. įour years later, when Angelou was seven and her brother eight, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning" and returned them to their mother's care in St. In "an astonishing exception" to the harsh economics of African Americans of the time, Angelou's grandmother prospered financially during the Great Depression and World War II, because the general store she owned sold basic and needed commodities and because "she made wise and honest investments". When Angelou was three and her brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage" ended, and their father sent them to Stamps, Arkansas, alone by train, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. Angelou's older brother, Bailey Jr., nicknamed Marguerite "Maya", derived from "My" or "Mya Sister". Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, the second child of Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer. Her books center on themes including racism, identity, family and travel. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing and expanding the genre. 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 U.S. She was respected as a spokesperson for Black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of Black culture. With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem " On the Pulse of Morning" (1993) 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. Beginning in the 1990s, she made approximately 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. Angelou was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Angelou was also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. These included 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. She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim. Angelou's series of seven autobiographies focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. 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. Maya Angelou ( / ˈ æ n dʒ ə l oʊ/ ⓘ AN-jə-loh born Marguerite Annie Johnson April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist.
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