Dr. Maya Angelou's Tribute Page In Her Honor!

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Daughter of Bailey and Vivian Baxter Johnson She was born Marguerite Johnson; she assumed her professional name while dancing.
Writer, dancer, African-American activist. Born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Maya Angelou spent her difficult formative years moving back and forth between her mother's and grandmother's. At age eight, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, who was subsequently killed by her uncles. The event caused Dr. Angelou as a young girl to go mute for nearly six years.Maya Angelou began to speak again at 13, when she and her brother rejoined their mother in San Francisco. Dr. Angelou attended Mission High School and won a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco's Labor School, where she was exposed to the progressive ideals that animated her later political activism. She dropped out of school in her teens to become San Francisco's first African American female cable car conductor.
She later returned to high school, and graduated a few weeks before giving birth to her son, Guy. She left home at 16 and took on the difficult life of a single mother, supporting herself and her son by working as a waitress and cook, but she had not given up on her talents for music, dance, performance and poetry.
In 1952, she married a Greek sailor named Tosh Angelos. When she began her career as a nightclub singer, she took the professional name Maya Angelou, combining her childhood nickname with a form of her husband's name. Although the marriage did not last, her performing career flourished. She toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess in 1954 and 1955. She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows and recorded her first record album, Calypso Lady (1957).
She had composed song lyrics and poems for many years, and by the end of the 1950s was increasingly interested in developing her skills as a writer. She moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild and took her place among the growing number of young black writers and artists associated with the Civil Rights Movement. She acted in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks and wrote and performed a Cabaret for Freedom with the actor and comedian Godfrey Cambridge.
In New York, she fell in love with the South African civil rights activist Vusumzi Make and in 1960, the couple moved, with Angelou's son, to Cairo, Egypt. In Cairo, Dr. Maya Angelou served as editor of the English language weekly The Arab Observer. Dr. Angelou and Guy later moved to Ghana, where she joined a thriving group of African American expatriates. Dr. Angelou served as an instructor and assistant administrator at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama, worked as feature editor for The African Review and wrote for The Ghanaian Times and the Ghanaian Broadcasting Company.
During her years abroad, Dr. Angelou read and studied voraciously, mastering French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language Fanti. She met with the American dissident leader Malcolm X in his visits to Ghana, and corresponded with him as his thinking evolved from the racially polarized thinking of his youth to the more inclusive vision of his maturity.
Maya Angelou returned to America in 1964, with the intention of helping Malcolm X build his new Organization of African American Unity. Shortly after her arrival in the United States, Malcolm X was assassinated, and his plans for a new organization died with him. Angelou involved herself in television production and remained active in the Civil Rights Movement, working more closely with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who requested that Angelou serve as Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His assassination, falling on her birthday in 1968, left her devastated. With the guidance of her friend, the novelist James Baldwin, she found solace in writing, and began work on the book that would become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The book tells the story of her life from her childhood in Arkansas to the birth of her child. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published in 1970 to widespread critical acclaim and enormous popular success. As a matter of fact, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is required reading in most elementary and high schools.
Seemingly overnight, Dr. Angelou became a national figure. In the following years, books of her verse and the subsequent volumes of her autobiographical narrative won her a huge international audience. Dr. Angelou was increasingly in demand as a teacher and lecturer and continued to explore dramatic forms as well. She wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the film Georgia, Georgia (1972). Her screenplay, the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Dr. Angelou has been invited by successive Presidents of the United States to serve in various capacities. President Ford appointed her to the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and President Carter invited her to serve on the Presidential Commission for the International Year of the Woman. President Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1993. Angelou's reading of her poem "On the Pulse of the Morning" was broadcast live around the world.
Since 1981, Dr. Angelou has served as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She has continued to appear on television and in films including Poetic Justice (1993) and the landmark television adaptation of Roots (1977). She has directed numerous dramatic and documentary programs on television and directed her first feature film, Down in the Delta, in 1996.
The list of her published works now includes more than 30 titles. These include numerous volumes of verse, beginning with Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971). Books of her stories and essays include Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now (1993) and Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997). She has continued the compelling narrative of her life in the books Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1987) and A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002).
Dr. Maya Angelou is a remarkable Renaissance woman who is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. She continues to travel the world, spreading her legendary wisdom. Within the rhythm of her poetry and elegance of her prose lies Dr. Angelou's unique power to help readers of every orientation span the lines of race and Dr. Angelou captivates audiences through the vigor and sheer beauty of her words and lyrics.
Dr. Angelou's poem, “Amazing Peace,” (2005) which she read at the lighting of the National Christmas tree in Washington, speaks of how celebrating Christmas transcends boundaries of all faiths.
Nick Ashford said...
“It’s her spirit. You just gravitate to her. That’s why I call her my angel,” beams Ashford.
“There is no word that really encompasses all that she is, but what she encompasses is the fact that we should be everything we can be,” says Valerie Simpson when asked how she might sum up Angelou’s myriad accomplishments — poet, writer, teacher, historian, dancer, singer, actress, Grammy winner, civil-rights activist. “So many of us cut our possibilities down ... She embraces everything and does it well and is not afraid.”
Dr. Maya Angelou’s 13 books include the autobiographical best-seller “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” and the cookbook “Hallelujah! The Welcome Table.”
With so many outlets for her talents, how does Angelou choose where to focus her energies?
“I try not to wear myself out, though usually expending energy gives me energy.
And for those who ask why this Tribute Page was created? Because millions all over this country, simply...
LOVE Dr. Maya Angelou To LIFE!!!!