Maya_Angelou

Maya Angelou Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 as Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis. She grew up in segregated rural Arkansas. She is a poet, historian, author, actress, playwright, civil rights activist, producer and director. She lectures throughout the U.S. and abroad and is Reynolds professor of American studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina since 1981. She has written ten best selling books and numerous magazine articles earning her Pulitzer prize and national book award nominations. Maya, wrote and delivered a poem at President Clinton’s 1993 Presidential Inauguration. Dr. Angelou who speaks french and three other languages began her career in drama and dances. Maya got married to a south African freedom fighter and lived in Cairo where she was the editor of the Arab observer, the only English language news weekly in the Middle East. In the 1960's at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Maya Angelou became Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Maya, was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the bicentennial commission and by President Jimmy Carter to the national commission on the observance of International women’s year. She held the great hall audience spellbound with stories of her maya, angelou, award, president, love, american, african, year, wrote, written, woman, wake, university, ten, southern, several, screenplay, reynolds, received, professor, produced, prize, poem, northern, north, national, leadership, johnson, including, georgia, forest, dr, coordinator, conference, commission, christian