Maya Angelou, Fearless and Inspirational

Maya Angelou is a Poet, Author and Playwright who has written six moving autobiographies, and numerous books, plays and publications. She also was an American Civil Rights Activist. It is especially difficult for me to write about Maya as she creates a masterpiece every time she puts pin to paper. I could only pray to do her life justice. If anyone has inspired me to write, it is Maya Angelou.

Early Life: Born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St Louis Missouri, Maya Angelou had a rough start. Her parents Bailey Johnson and Vivian Baxter Johnson divorced when she was only three and her brother was four. Their father sent them on a train to live with his mother, Anne Henderson in Stamps, Arkansas. Four years later, she was sent back to her mother where her mother’s boyfriend raped her at age 8. As told in her bestselling autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, Maya became partially mute for several years following this incident because she felt that her speaking was responsible for the man’s subsequent murder. She believed it was “better to not talk”. She then spent a few more years with her grandmother, and then was sent back to her mother who was in San Francisco at the time. Maya took dance and drama lessons. She took a job as the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco, and three weeks after high school graduation, she gave birth to her son, Guy Johnson.

Interesting facts: Maya Angelou has been married and divorced several times. Her surname is an adaptation of her first husband’s last name.

Maya Angelou toured Europe with a production of Porgy and Bess from 1954-1955.

She danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows.

She recorded her first Album “Miss Calypso” in 1957.

Career Accomplishments:

Maya Angelou became Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference from 1959-1960 at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

She lived with South African Freedom Fighter Vusumi Make in Cairo Egypt where she was associate editor of The Arab Observer.

She lived in Ghana and was assistant administrator at the University of Ghana’s School of Music and Drama, worked for The African Review, and did some acting and Playwriting.

In Ghana, Maya Angelou met Malcolm X and returned to America to help him build the civil rights organization, The Organization of African American Unity.

In 1993, she recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning at President Clinton’s Inauguration.

Maya Angelou remains a very active writer and speaker, and has a radio show for XM Satellite Radio’s Oprah & Friends Show.

She has many honors and awards. Among them are three Grammy’s for spoken word Albums, over thirty honorary degrees, a Presidential Medal of Arts, and a Mother Teresa Award.

What does Maya Angelou’s story teach us?

For me, reading Maya Angelou’s story tells me that a person’s past does not have to determine their future. Regardless of what you have experienced, you still have to continue to live your life. Her fearlessness has inspired me to also be fearless about what lies before me.