Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou , 1928-, African-American writer and performer, b. St. Louis, Mo. as Marguerite Johnson. She toured Europe and Africa in the musical Porgy and Bess (1954-55), then sang in New York City nightclubs, joined the Harlem Writers Guild, and took part in several off-Broadway productions, including Genet's The Blacks and her own Cabaret for Freedom (1960). During the 1960s she was active in the African-American political movement; she subsequently spent several years in Ghana as editor of the African Review. Her six autobiographical volumes (1970-2002), beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, have generally been well-received. She has also published several volumes of poetry, including And I Still Rise (1987). Angelou read her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Clinton in 1993.

Angelou, Maya (1928– ) US writer, editor, and entertainer. She is best known for six volumes of autobiography, starting with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970). Evoking her childhood in 1930s Arkansas, it relates the rape that left Angelou mute for the next five years. The fourth volume, The Heart of a Woman, deals with her involvement in the 1960s Civil Rights movement as the Northern Coordinator for Martin Luther King, Jr. She read her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993.

Angelou, Maya (1928–), St. Louis‐born author, singer, dancer, playwright, and stage and screen actress, long resident in California, has achieved most success with her frank and warm‐hearted autobiographical accounts of her life as a young black woman in America and her residence abroad in Egypt and Ghana, titled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), and All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986). She has also written several collections of poems, including Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diie (1971), Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975), And Still I Rise (1978), Shaker, Why Don't You Sing (1983), Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987), and Shall Not Be Moved (1990). The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou appeared in 1994. Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993) is a memoir concerned with spirituality, sensuality, and healing.