Maya Angelou

The Caged Bird's Voice · Poet & Memoirist · 1928–2014

The poet and memoirist whose 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' told a Black girl's story whole, and whose verse of endurance — 'Still I Rise' — made her one of America's most beloved literary voices.

Who was Maya?

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St Louis and raised largely in Stamps, Arkansas, amid segregation. A childhood trauma left her mute for years; she found her way back to language through books and the love of her grandmother. She lived many lives — dancer, singer, journalist in Africa, worker in the civil-rights movement alongside Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Her memoir 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' broke ground in telling a Black girl's story with candour and dignity. She wrote poems of endurance and defiance, and read 'On the Pulse of Morning' at President Clinton's 1993 inauguration. An elder of American letters, she spoke hard truths with grace and insisted that courage is the first of the virtues.

Major achievements

• Wrote 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings', a landmark American memoir
• Wrote celebrated poems including 'Still I Rise' and 'Phenomenal Woman'
• Read 'On the Pulse of Morning' at the 1993 presidential inauguration
• Worked in the civil-rights movement with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X
• Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2010)

Life in brief

• 1928 — Born in St Louis: Raised largely in Stamps, Arkansas.
• 1940s — A turbulent youth: Trauma, silence, and a slow return to language.
• 1960s — Civil-rights work: With King and Malcolm X.
• 1969 — Caged Bird: Her groundbreaking first memoir.
• 1978 — 'Still I Rise': Her anthem of endurance appears.
• 1993 — Inaugural poem: Reads 'On the Pulse of Morning'.
• 2014 — Dies: A celebrated elder of American letters.

Explore the life of Maya — five chapters

1. Stamps, Arkansas — A grandmother's store, and five years of silence
2. The Job List — Streetcar conductor at sixteen, and a great deal else
3. Ghana — Malcolm X, independence, and two assassinations
4. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings — Autobiography written as literature
5. On the Pulse of Morning — Teaching, an inauguration, and a public voice

Read the five-chapter life of Maya Angelou →

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