I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Background:

“I make writing as much a part of my life as I do eating or listening to music.” Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is famous as the author of a number of best-selling books, including the National Book nominee “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (1970). Other books of note include “Gather Together in My Name” (1974), “Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas” (1976), “The Heart of a Woman” (1981), “All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes” (1986) and “A Song Flung Up To Heaven” (2002). Her volume of verses, “Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie” (1971), received a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

Angelou, who is heralded as a great voice of contemporary literature, has also dotted her impressive resume with various occupations, including that of magazine editor, educator, actress, playwright, producer, director, civil rights activist and of course, author and poet. The St. Louis, Missouri, native was nominated for a Tony for her scene-stealing role in the 1973 Broadway production of “Look Away” and collected three Grammy Awards for her spoken word albums. Her movie directorial debut, “Down in the Delta” (1998), received a nomination for Best Film at the Acapulco Black Film Festival, where she also nabbed the Best Director nomination. The film was also nominated for an Image for Outstanding Motion Picture and won Angelou the Audience Choice Award at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Angelou was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1998 and the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in 2008. She was named one of Ladies' Home Journal's “Top 100 Most Influential Women” in 1983 and one of Writer's Digest's “Top 100 Best Writers of the 20th Century” in 1999. Other honors she received included the Women in Film Crystal Award (1992), Humanitarian Contribution Award (1997), Presidential Medal of Arts (2000), John Hope Franklin Award (2006), Mother Teresa Award (2006) and the Lincoln Medal (2008).

Angelou's son, Guy Johnson, is the author of the novel “Standing at the Scratch Line.”

Mute Maya

Childhood and Family:

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Bailey Johnson, a doorman and naval specialist, and Vivian Baxter, a real estate agent-turned- merchant marine. She moved with her parents to California as a baby. When Maya was 3 and a half, her parents divorced. Her dad sent her and older brother Bailey Johnson Jr. to live with their paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. After four years, their dad sent them to live with their mother in San Francisco, California, where 8-year-old Maya was molested by her mother's boyfriend, who was subsequently killed by her uncles. The murder caused her to go mute for five years. She recalled, “I thought if I spoke, my mouth would just issue out something that would kill people, randomly, so it was better not to talk.”

Maya did not decide to speak again until she moved back to Arkansas and met an older friend whom introduced her to classical literature, authors and women artists. At age 13, she moved back to San Francisco to live with her mother and attended George Washington High School. She won a scholarship to study drama and dance at the California Labor School. Before graduation, she became the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Later, Maya also received a scholarship to study dance with choreographer Pearl Primus and modern dance with Martha Graham.

Maya gave birth to her son, Guy Johnson (previously known as Clyde), when she was 16 years old. In 1950, at age 22, she married Greek sailor Tosh Angelos. The marriage ended in separation in 1952. Eight years later, she married Vusumzi Make, but that bond also had a short life and they divorced in 1963. She was next married to Paul Du Feu, a British-born carpenter, from January 18, 1974, to 1981.

Maya has a grandson named Colin Johnson.

Down in the Delta

Career:

A former drama and dance student at the California Labor School, Maya Angelou worked as a calypso dancer to support herself and her son. She became a member of the applauded Alvin Ailey Dance Company and along with choreographer Alvin Ailey, she formed a dance group called Al and Rita. At the time, she was known as Rita Johnson. She toured Europe and African in the musical “Porgy and Bess” from 1954 to 1955 and in 1957, was cast in an off-Broadway production of “Calypso Heatwave.” Also that year, she made her feature acting debut in “Calypso Heat Wave” and released her debut album, “Miss Calypso.” Angelou was also spotted singing in New York nightclubs in the late 1950s.

The early 1960s found the multi-faceted artist acting in NYC stage productions such as 1960's “Cabaret for Freedom” (also a producer) and 1961's “The Blacks” before relocating to Africa and Cairo, Egypt. While in Cairo, she found work as an editor at the English-language weekly newspaper “The Arab Observer.” Upon relocating to Ghana in 1962, she served as Assistant Administrator of School of Music and Drama at the University of Ghana. She also became a feature editor for “The African Review” and acted and wrote plays.

In 1964, Angelou, who served as the Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference from 1959 to 1960 at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., returned to the United States to help close friend Malcolm X establish a new civil rights organization, The Organization of African American Unity. Two years later, in 1966, two of her plays, “The Clawing Within” and “The Least of These,” were produced in America. They were followed by “Adijoa Amissah” the next year. Angelou co-wrote songs for the 1968 movie “For Love of Ivy,” for which she had the opportunity to work with multiple-Grammy winning Quincy Jones, but did not acquire wide spread notice until the release of her first autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” in 1969. Talking about the first 11 years of her life, the book received a nomination at the National Book Awards.

In 1971, Angelou published a book of poetry called “Just Give Me A Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die” and was nominated for a 1972 Pulitzer Prize for her work. She returned to the cinematic industry the following year when she wrote the screenplay and songs for “Georgia, Georgia” (1972), starring Diana Sands in the titular role. Her screenplay marked the first original script by an African-American woman to be produced. In 1973, Angelou debuted on Broadway in “Look Away” and received a Tony nomination for her fine acting. She went on to direct and write the 1974 short “All Day Long,” co-host the PBS interview series “Assignment America” (1975), along with George F Will, Studs Terkel and Doris Stearn, and direct the musical “And Still I Rise” (1976) before turning to television as part of the ABC landmark TV miniseries “Roots” (1977). She portrayed the character Nyo Boto. In 1979, she co-wrote the television play for CBS’ adaptation of her book, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” Angelou also published her second autobiography “Gather Together in My Name” and “Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas” in 1974 and 1976, respectively. Her next book of poetry, “And Still I Rise,” was published in 1978.

Angelou's popularity rose during the 1980s thanks largely to her poetry. By the mid 1980s, she had published the autobiography “The Heart of a Woman” (1981) and “All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes” (1986). She then produced and wrote the screenplay for NBC’s TV film “Sister, Sister” (1982), which won an Image for Best Television Movie or Miniseries, and in 1989, she was featured on the documentary “James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket.” Angelou was then honored with the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award in 1986.

Angelou, who became Oprah Winfrey's friend and mentor in the early 1980s and later considered the TV personality as the daughter she always wanted, penned the premiere episode of the ABC drama series “Brewster Place” (1990), which starred Winfrey as Mattie Michael. In 1993, she presented the poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the Presidential inauguration to President Bill Clinton. Angelou picked up a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for her work on “On The Pulse of Morning.” Also in 1993, Angelou resumed her acting career with roles in an ABC TV movie starring Oprah Winfrey, “There Are No Children Here” (1993), and the John Singleton-directed drama “Poetic Justice” (also 1993). Her poems were also featured in the latter movie. She was then cast as the mother of Alfre Woodard in the female ensemble drama “How to Make an American Quilt” (1995), which also starred Winona Ryder and Anne Bancroft, and was handed an Image nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her work in the film. She then made a guest appearance in a 1995 episode of “Touched by an Angel.” As an author, she published the book “My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken and Me” in 1994 and “Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou” in 1995. She netted a 1995 Grammy for Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album for “Phenomenal Woman.”

1996 found Angelou supplying the narration and music for the documentary “Perfect Moment,” writing the screenplay for “Angelou on Burns,” and serving as one of the writers of the Emmy Award winning animation TV film “How Do You Spell God?” Two years later, she made her feature directorial debut with “Down in the Delta,” a drama starring Alfre Woodard. Although it won Angelou a Best Director nomination at the Acapulco Black Film Festival and an Audience Choice Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, the film was a box office flop.

In the new millennium, Angelou provided the voice of the Fairy Godmother in an episode of the 1990s cartoon series “Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child” (2000). She then appeared in the based-on-novel TV film “The Runaway” (2000) and starred in the title role in “Phenomenal Woman” (2001). She did not return to acting until 2006 when she was cast as May in “Tyler Perry's 'Madea's Family Reunion.’” Also in 2006, she hosted a radio talk show for XM Satellite Radio's Oprah & Friends channel.

In 2002, Angelou launched the book “A Song Flung Up To Heaven,” from which she won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album.

Awards:

• Grammy: Best Spoken Word Album, “A Song Flung Up to Heaven,” 2002

• Chicago International Film Festival: Audience Choice Award, “Down in the Delta,” 1998

• Grammy: Best Spoken Word or Non-Musical Album, “Phenomenal Woman,” 1995

• Grammy: Best Spoken Word Album, “On The Pulse of Morning,” 1993

• Women in Film Crystal: Crystal Award, 1992

• Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy: 1986