Maya Angelou, a renowned poet, novelist and actress
whose work defied description under a simple label, has died, her literary
agent, Helen Brann, said Today (Wednesday).
She
died at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Brann said.
A
professor, singer and dancer, Angelou's work spans several professions. In
2011, President Barack Obama awarded her with the Medal of Freedom, the
country's highest civilian honor.
She
spent her early years studying dance and drama in San Francisco, but dropped
out at age 14, instead becoming the city's first African-American female cable
car conductor.
Angelou
later returned to high school to finish her diploma and gave birth a few weeks
after graduation. While the 17-year-old single mother waited tables to support
her son, she acquired a passion for music and dance, and toured Europe in the
mid-1950s in the opera production "Porgy and Bess." In 1957, she
recorded her first album, "Calypso Lady."
In
1958, Angelou become a part of the Harlem Writers Guild in New York and also
played a queen in "The Blacks," an off-Broadway production by French
dramatist Jean Genet.
President Barack Obama awarded her with the Medal of Freedom. |
"I
created myself," she has said. "I have taught myself so much."
Angelou
was born April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew up between St. Louis
and the then-racially-segregated town of Stamps, Arkansas.
The
famous poet got into writing after a childhood tragedy that stunned her into
silence for years. When she was 7, her mother's boyfriend raped her. He was
later beaten to death by a mob after she testified against him.
"My
7-and-a-half-year-old logic deduced that my voice had killed him, so I stopped
speaking for almost six years," she said.
From
the silence, a louder voice was born.
Her
list of friends is as impressive as her illustrious career. Talk show queen
Oprah Winfrey referred to her as "sister friend." She counted Martin
Luther King Jr., with whom she worked during the Civil Rights movement, among
her friends. King was assassinated on her birthday.
Angelou
spoke at least six languages, and worked at one time as a newspaper editor in
Egypt and Ghana. During that period, she wrote "I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings," launching the first in a series of autobiographical books.
"I
want to write so well that a person is 30 or 40 pages in a book of mine ...
before she realizes she's reading," Angelou said.
She
was also one of the first black women film directors. Her work on Broadway has
been nominated for Tony Awards.
Before making it big, the 6-foot-tall wordsmith also worked as a cook and sang with a traveling road show. "Look where we've all come from ... coming out of darkness, moving toward the light," she once said. "It is a long journey, but a sweet one, bittersweet."
Source: CNN
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