The Life of Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou














Kenya McQueen
January 15, 2008
English





Maya Angelou was born as the name Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents were Bailey Johnson and Vivian Baxter-Johnson. Marguerite was named “Maya” because her older brother Bailey Jr. gave her that nickname and her last name came from her ex-husband Tosh Angelos.

Maya was a quiet girl who went “mute” for nearly five years. She thought that if she spoke, her “mouth would just issue out something that would kill people, randomly, so it was better not to talk”. Maya didn’t have a great childhood. Her mother and father broke up their marriage and she was sexually abused and raped by her mother’s boyfriend at age eight. At age eighteen, she wrote her first autobiography called I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. After this book was published, it catapulted her to international fame and critical acclaim. In 1973, she remarried to Paul du Feu and moved with him and her son to Sonoma, California which is where her most productive years as a writer and a poet came.
Not only was Maya Angelou an excellent poet and writer, but she was also a playwright, producer, and a director. She published seven autobiographies, four children’s books, about fifteen poems or more, and wrote six plays. One of the most influential poems that Maya wrote was Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems for Women. This poem is describing how beautiful and powerful black women are. This poem had affected a lot of African-American women from the past and today. Maya Angelou also met writers who were in the Civil Rights Movement. She also became close friends with Malcolm X. After his assassination, Martin Luther King, Jr. requested her to become the Northern Coordinator Southern Christian Leadership Conferences. Ms. Angelou also appeared on talk shows like Oprah Winfrey’s show, and she also became very popular from her public speaking.
People should know that Maya Angelou was a phenomenal woman. She has received 62 awards and 37 honorary degrees. She has inspired so many people now. To me, the most impressive thing that she has done was win so many awards. To me, that means that she has really made a difference in people’s lives and that people really appreciate the things she has done.
Maya Angelou has inspired me to be able to write poems. Ever since I was younger, I’ve wanted to be like Maya Angelou and write a lot of poems like her because they were so powerful. Lat year, one of my classmates said that I write great stories. So hopefully in the future, I am able to write a poem or story that will affect people, just the way Maya Angelou’s poems did.