In Memory of Maya Angelou

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Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014)
49d88b296835f6f1d715de7c02f902b5An acclaimed American poet, storyteller, activist, and autobiographer, Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri. Angelou has had a broad career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood’s first female black director, but is most famous as a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet. As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.


Throughout her illustrious career in letters, Maya Angelo gifted, healed, and inspired the world with her words. The beauty and spirit of those words live on in this new and complete collection of poetry that reflects and honors the writer’s remarkable life.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

 


The story of Maya Angelou’s extraordinary life has been chronicled in her multiple bestselling autobiographies. But now, at last, the legendary author shares the deepest personal story of her life: her relationship with her mother.

 

 

Dedicated to the daughter she never had but sees all around her, Letter to My Daughter reveals Maya Angelou’s path to living well and living a life with meaning. Told in her own inimitable style, this book transcends genres and categories: guidebook, memoir, poetry, and pure delight

 

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude”

Filled with unforgettable vignettes of famous people, from Billie Holiday to Malcolm X, but perhaps most important is the story of Maya Angelou’s relationship with her son. Because this book chronicles, finally, the joys and the burdens of a black mother in America and how the son she had cherished so intensely and worked for so devotedly finally grows to be a man.

In what ways has Maya Angelou inspired you?

25 thoughts on “In Memory of Maya Angelou”

  4. Pingback: In Memory of Maya Angelou – worldtraveller70

  7. She did so much, I love watching her dance and sing as Miss Calypso! That’s one of the best things about the internet, you get to see past videos you may have never crossed before by people sharing. We are in Winston-Salem, NC and so we see so much of her influence here. Thank you for this post.

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  13. Sometime during my youth, while living in Southern Oregon, I discovered that I could listen to San Francisco AM radio stations late at night. KGO had talk shows (before today’s politicized rants) and for a while Maya Angelou hosted one, maybe a weekly one, on Saturday or Sunday nights. Falling asleep listening to her gorgeous voice is one of my fondest memories of the early 1970s!

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  14. Twice in her later years, Maya came to my small university town to speak and share her beautiful soul. The second of those occasions was for a tribute to Toni Morrison. To have both of those women on stage in the same evening still stands out as one of the most incredible experiences I’ve had in a long life of loving literature and theatre. There will never be another like her.

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