Maya Angelou

maya angelou (maya angelou pictures 2010)

Maya Angelou is my hero. She is a remarkable woman. You might ask why Maya? Well, why not? She is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. She loves helping people of all of races and she wants them to be successful in life.

Maya’s poetry is absolutely brilliant. With a subtle voice, she can change the hardest of men. Her poem, I Know why the Caged Bird Sings, opened my eyes and made me look at my life in a different light. Yes, she is a celebrated poet, novelist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and a civil rights activist.

Maya was born on April 4th, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. She was raised in Stamps, Arkansas and St. Louis. She experienced racial discrimination in Stamps which infuriated her. As a teenager Maya found an escape in writing poems. Her arts awards won her a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School.

Maya dropped out of school at age 14 to become San Francisco’s first African-American female to be her own cable car conductor. Shortly after she went back to school and graduated, she had her son. She soon started working on her book, one that goes by the name “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” It was published in 1970. She studied dancing and in 1957 she recorded her first album Calypso Lady. In 1958 she moved to New York where she joined a group of people and assisted them in writing a book. In 1960 she moved to Cairo, Egypt, where she started teaching kids on how to speak the English language.

She moved to Ghana where she taught drama and music class at the University of Ghana’s school. She soon returned to America in 1964 after she had met Malcolm X and helped him on his new Organization of African American Unity. In 1996 Maya directed her first film called down in the Delta. In 2008 she composed the poetry and narrated the awards-winners documentary. Maya Angelou quotes of words were “Continue to stir our souls, energize our bodies, liberate our minds, and heal our hearts.”