Maya Angelous Biography, american poet, memoirist, and civil rights campaigner Maya Angelou. She wrote seven autobiographies, three books of essays, many books of poetry, and contributed to plays, films, and television shows that spanned more than 50 years during her lifetime.
She became well-known for her seven autobiographies, which highlight her formative years and early adulthood. After working at various odd jobs as a young adult, including fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa, she eventually found success as a poet and writer.
She was also a producer of plays, films, and public television shows as well as a writer, director, and performer. Additionally, she collaborated with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. while being active in the Civil Rights Movement. She spoke up on personal matters when “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was published.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings shot to the top of Amazon.com’s bestselling list in the week following Angelou’s passing. She focuses on topics like racism, identity, family, and travel in her writings. Maya is renowned for her feminism, which is highlighted in her well-known poem “Phenomenal Woman, sadly, on May 28, 2014, she passes away at age 86.
Death
At the age of 86, Maya Angelou passed away on May 28, 2014. Her nurse located her. Despite Angelou’s rumored ill health and cancellation of recent events, she was still writing another book, an autobiography on her interactions with national and international leaders.
She wrote four books in the last ten years of her life, according to her son Guy Johnson, who spoke at her memorial ceremony at Wake Forest University. This was despite the fact that she was in continual agony from her dance career and respiratory failure. She exited this mortal realm with no loss of mental clarity or comprehension, he remarked.
Artists, entertainers, and world leaders, including Obama, whose sister is named after Angelou, and Bill Clinton, paid tribute to Angelou and expressed their sympathies. The National Book Foundation’s Harold Augenbraum stated that Angelou’s “legacy is one that all writers and readers across the world can respect and aspire to.
The first Black woman to appear in the US quarter is Maya Angelou. It is the first piece of the American Women Quarters Program to be published. Barbara Lee, an East Bay congresswoman who oversaw the coin-making endeavor, spoke with KRON4 about the project. You might soon hold a priceless coin in your hands.
This week, the U.S. Mint started delivering the coins, i’m simply thrilled because there have been so many people who have contributed to the creation of this country, but the public only sees the founding fathers, lee said, and now they’ll be able to see women, women of color, and our first coin is our beloved Dr Maya Angelou, the legislation to establish the first American Women Quarters Program was co-authored by Lee, the first of six honorees who will have coins in circulation through 2025 is Maya Angelou, she is shown with her arms up and a bird soaring behind her.
On April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, the United States, Maya Angelou was born. She went by Marguerite Annie Johnson in real life. She was of American descent, and her ethnic heritage was mixed because she was likely 1/8th Irish with African-American ancestors. She was black in color. Her 86th birthday was the final one she spent with her loved ones.
She was a Christian and had the astrological sign of Aries. She was conceived by her mother, Vivian Baxter Johnson, and her father, Bailey Johnson. Her mother was a nurse and a card dealer, and her father worked as a doorman and a Navy dietitian. She also had a brother, Bailey Johnson Jr., who was her older sibling.
She concentrated on her schooling and received her diploma from the California Labor School. She subsequently went to George Washington High School. Despite not attending college, she has more than 50 honorary degrees to her name.
Marriage Life
Maya Angelou had a husband. First, in 1951, she wed Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician, sailor, and aspiring musician. Guy, their son, was born via her. After three years of being together, the couple eventually got divorced in 1954.
She then dated Vusumzi Make from 1961 to 1962 after that. Paul du Feu, a Welsh carpenter, later became her husband. In the past, Paul was wed to author Germaine Greer. Maya and Paul were married in 1974, and in her second novel, Even the Stars Look Lonesome, she had referred to them as a “marriage made in heaven.” But in 1983, they finally separated. She was not seen again after that.
Net Worth
As of 2022, it was estimated that Maya Angelou, an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist, had a net worth of $10 million. Her 1969 autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” which soon became a global blockbuster and is now required reading in many high schools, is what made her most well-known.
She had been in TV advertisements for Wake Forest University (2013), Union Bank of California (2013), and Public Broadcasting System (1999). (2014) She bought a house in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for $575,000 in 1994. A year after she passed away, Shelley and Daryl Bible purchased the house for $500,000 and spent more than $1 million renovating it. They listed the house for sale for $2.395 million in March 2020, and it sold for $2 million a few months later. Information about her career earnings has not yet been made public. Her work as a poet is her primary source of cash.
Poems
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie’ (1971)
Although Angelou authored a number of poetry books, the most well-known being the Pulitzer Prize-nominated Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die from 1971.
- Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975), which includes Angelou’s poem “Alone”
- And Still I Rise (1978), which features the beloved poem “Phenomenal Woman”
- Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? (1983)
- I Shall Not Be Moved (1990), featuring the poem “Human Family”; Apple famously used a video of Angelou reading this poem in an advertisement at the 2016 Olympics
- Even the Stars Look Lonesome (1997)
This poem by Maya Angelou, one of her most well-known pieces, was written especially for and presented at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration ceremony in January 1993, since Robert Frost read his poem The Gift Outright at John F Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961, this was the first inaugural reading.