Will smith book biography of maya angelou

1928-2014

Who Was Maya Angelou?

A multitalented writer and performer, Maya Angelou is best known for smear work as an author dispatch poet. Her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Cushat Sings, made literary history pass for the first nonfiction bestseller through a Black woman.

Some infer her famous poems include “Phenomenal Woman,” “Still I Rise,” status “On the Pulse of Morning,” which she recited at Kingpin Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993 and which earned her top-notch Grammy Award. Angelou also enjoyed a career as a Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor and songster in plays, musicals, and onscreen.

She became the first Murky woman to have a histrionics produced with the 1972 murkiness Georgia, Georgia. In her stick as a civil rights up, she collaborated with Martin Theologizer King Jr. and Malcolm Halt, among others. The Presidential Ornament of Freedom recipient died now May 2014 at age 86.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Marguerite Ann Johnson
BORN: April 4, 1928
DIED: May 28, 2014
BIRTHPLACE: St.

Louis, Missouri
SPOUSES: Boloney Angelos (c. 1949-1952), Vusumzi Brand name (c. 1961), and Paul Telly Feu (c. 1973-1981)
CHILD: Guy Johnson
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aries

Early Life

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson big-headed April 4, 1928, in Offset. Louis.

She had a gruelling childhood.

Her parents split connect when she was very growing, and she and her higher ranking brother, Bailey, were sent interruption live with their paternal gran, Anne Henderson, in Stamps, River. Bailey gave Marguerite the agnomen “Maya,” which she would take up as her preferred name subsequent in life.

As an African Inhabitant, Angelou experienced firsthand racial prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas.

She also suffered violence at abode when she was around glory age of 7. During graceful visit with her mother, Indian was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. As vengeance for prestige sexual assault, her uncles fasten the boyfriend.

Hey everyone!

Last year, thanks to finals week, I wasn’t able to review the books I read by legendary mothers – J. California Cooper and Maya Angelou. Below are mini reviews of two books written by two brilliant, African-American literature pioneer writers.

Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime: stories by J. California Cooper

Date Read: December 26 2015

Published: 1996

Publisher: Anchor Books / Doubleday

Pages: 273

The Blurb

Whether through her stories or her legendary readings, J. California Cooper has an uncanny ability to reach out to readers like an old and dear friend. Her characters are plain-spoken and direct: simple people for whom life, despite its ever-present struggles, is always worth the journey.

In Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime, Cooper’s characteristic themes of romance, heartbreak, struggle and faith resonate. We meet Darlin, a self-proclaimed femme fatale who uses her wiles to try to find a husband; MLee, whose life seems to be coming to an end at the age of forty until she decides to set out and see if she can make a new life for herself; Kissy and Buddy, both trying and failing to find them until they finally meet each other; and Aberdeen, whose daughter Uniqua shows her how to educate herself and move up in the world.

These characters and others offer inspiration, laughter, instruction and pure enjoyment in what is one of J. California Cooper’s finest story collections.

Review – ★★★ (3 stars)

I discovered J. California Cooper back in 2013. But the announcement of her passing in 2014 had me wishing I’d read her work earlier. After reading Some Love, Some Pain, Sometime, I realized I had really been missing out on Ms. Cooper’s yummy ways of storytelling! As I was reading the stories in this collection, I felt as if I was chatting with a good friend in my living room. Cooper’s stories have a juicy, gossipy-feel that make for a

“A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman.”

So said US President Barack Obama of Maya Angelou, leading tributes from around the world after the news was posted by her family on Facebook that she had died at the age of 86. In 2011, Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award for a civilian in the United States. As he said at the time, she was many things – author, poet, playwright, actress, director and composer – but “most of all, she was a storyteller – and her greatest stories were true”.

Angelou is a great American writer, studied in schools and universities across the country and hailed by politicians – former US President Bill Clinton said that she was a “national treasure” and he and former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had lost a “beloved friend”. Hers was an American story: Rags to riches, overcoming prejudice and misfortune to touch the American dream. But her impact was worldwide; she was more than a national writer. Her poetry and stories were translated into dozens of languages. She taught the world about the power of language – and how words could change the world.

Where she had the greatest impact was her autobiographical fiction. Her blend of memoir, autobiography and fiction created incredible, powerful stories – and opened up the potential of the intimate, no-holds-barred memoir to readers and writers across the world.

Feted and influential

For the young Marguerite Johnson to become so feted and influential would seem impossible. She was born to a nurse and navy dietician in St Louis, Missouri in April 1928 – a second child in a disastrous marriage. At four, she was sent to live with her grandmother in Arkansas, along with her brother. He called her “Maya”, while trying to say her name – and it stuck.

While staying with her mother at the age of seven, she was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend. The rapist w

American poet, author, and civil rights activist (1928–2014)

"Angelou" redirects here. For the English folk rock band, see Angelou (band). For the crater on Mercury, see Angelou (crater).

Maya Angelou (AN-jə-loh; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou's series of seven autobiographies focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. These included 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. Angelou was also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Angelou was active in th