Maya Angelou
(1928– )
Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Stamps, Arkansas. She lived in San Francisco for a while and studied to become a professional dancer and an actress. She toured Europe and Africa in a production of Porgy and Bess for the State Department. She also worked in the civil-rights movement for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and wrote for newspapers in Egypt and Ghana.
Angelou has written about her own life and feelings as an African American woman in the twentieth century in four autobiographical books, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), which was nominated for a National Book Award. She took the title of the work from a poem called "Sympathy" by the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. Like Dunbar, Angelou identified with the songbird that sings because it wants to be free. In 1972 her book of poems Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She has also written a number of plays, screenplays, television productions, and magazine articles. Angelou has made several recordings, including The Poetry of Maya Angelou, and she has appeared in several movies. In 1993 Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Clinton’s inauguration.
