Maya Angelu

6 Pages 1571 Words

Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was born under the name Marguerite Johnson, but her brother Baily renamed her Maya. Her parents, Baily and Vivian Baxter Johnson, got divorced when she was very young. Maya grew up in a very racist town. There were many problems in her life, in which she describes in her autobiographical novel “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. At the age of 16, she became pregnant, while experimenting if her sexual preference was males or females. She had to get numerous jobs to support herself and her son, Clyde, who was later known as Guy. In 1952, she married a man named Tosh Angelos, but due to his atheist ideals, which grew to be unacceptable to Maya’s religion, the marriage soon ended. In order to have money to support herself and Clyde, she was forced to become a dancer and a bar girl in a strip joint. After she got enough money, she moved to New York and sang at various clubs. Maya started her writing career in New York with the Harlem Literary Guild. She made contracts which led to her recognition as a producer, director, and performer. In 1960, she married a South African freedom fighter, Vusumzi Make. They both got jobs as editors of the Arab Observer. The marriage ended three years later, and Maya moved to Ghana. She felt at home for the first time of her life. This is when she started her first writings. Maya was nominated for an Emmy Award for her acting in “Roots” and “Georgia, Georgia”. She also received a Pulitzer Prize Nomination for her poems “Just Give Me a Cool Drink ‘fore I Die” (1971) and “And Still I Rise” (1976). Being President Bill Clinton’s favorite writer, he asked her to write and deliver a poem for his 1993 presidential inauguration. She also wrote a poem for the “Million Man March”. “On the Pulse of Morning” became a best-selling book on 20 January 1993. Now, Maya is a Reynolds professor of American Studies at Wake Forres...