Maya Angelou

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MA overcame the unpromising circumstances of her birth and upbringing to become an African-American poet, song-writer, autobiographer, and political activist, a talented Renaissance woman of the twentieth-century United States.
Younge, Gary. “Maya Angelou: a titan who lived as though there were no tomorrow”. The Guardian, 29 May 2014.
  • BirthName: Marguerite Annie Johnson
  • Nickname: Maya
    Her brother first gave her the name of Maya when they were children: refusing to attempt Marguerite, he called her Mya Sister, then My, then Maya.
    Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Heinemann New Windmill Series, 1995.
    59
    Angelou, Maya. The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou. Random House, 2004.
    470

  • Self-constructed: Maya Angelou
    She was Marguerite (except in her family) until her lasting public name was created by informal committee when she needed a stage name as a singer.
    Angelou, Maya. The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou. Random House, 2004.
    470
  • Married: Angelos
Colour photo of Maya Angelou speaking at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She is sitting, talking away from the microphone on her right, wearing a black dress with gold chain and disc earrings, hands clasped in her lap.

Milestones

4 April 1928

MA was born in St Louis, Missouri, the younger of two children. In early years she was very close to her brother.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
2014

By December 1969

MA published the first volume of an autobiography that was to extend to six volumes: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, taking her early life as far as the birth of her son when she was sixteen.
Book Review Index. Gale Research.
154

By later January 2013

MA gave a starring role to her mother, Vivian Baxter , in Mom & Me & Mom, an episodic collection of anecdotes and aphorisms.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
2014

28 May 2014

MA died at the age of eighty-six at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Innes, Lyn. “Maya Angelou Obituary”. The Guardian, 28 May 2014.
Innes
Fox, Margalit. “Maya Angelou, Lyrical Witness of the Jim Crow South, Dies at 86”. The New York Times, 28 May 2014.

Biography

Birth, Background, Violence

4 April 1928

MA was born in St Louis, Missouri, the younger of two children. In early years she was very close to her brother.
“Contemporary Authors”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Centre-LRC.
2014

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