Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was an African American author, poet, playwright, film and television producer and director, and a political activist for Black rights. Born as Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, in 1928, she married Greek sailor Anastasios Angelos in 1951, whose surname she chose to keep for artistic reasons after their separation. She was at the forefront of the fight for African American civil rights in the USA, collaborated with Martin Luther King Jr., and was a close friend of Malcolm X. In 2000, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts by the American National Endowment for the Arts, and in 2011, President Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her most well-known autobiographical books include: "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," 1969 (covering her childhood up to age 17 in 1944), "Gather Together in My Name," 1974 (covering the years 1944-1948), "Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas," 1976 (covering the years 1949-1955), "The Heart of a Woman," 1981 (covering the years 1957-1962), "All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes," 1986 (covering the years 1962-1965), and "A Song Flung Up to Heaven," 2002 (covering the years 1965-1968). In total, she wrote over 30 books, including essays, poems, and a series of plays, film scripts, and television series over more than 50 years, earning numerous awards. She recited one of her poems at the inauguration ceremony of U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1993. She also won Grammy Awards for three albums on which she performed recitations. She lived in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she was a professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University. She passed away on May 28, 2014, at the age of 86.