Maya angelou early life biography
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Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. She was an author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. She was best known for her seven autobiographical books: Mom & Me & Mom (Random House, ); Letter to My Daughter (Random House, ); All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (Random House, ); The Heart of a Woman (Random House, ); Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (Random House, ); Gather Together in My Name (Random House, ); and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Random House, ), which was nominated for the National Book Award.
Among her volumes of poetry are A Brave and Startling Truth (Random House, ); The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (Random House, );&
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Maya Angelou is born
Poet and novelist Maya Angelou—born Marguerite Johnson—is born in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she and her brother went to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. When she was eight, she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. When she revealed what happened, her uncles kicked the culprit to death. Frightened by the power of her own tongue, Angelou chose not to speak for the next five years.
From this quiet beginning emerged a young woman who sang, danced, and recorded poetry. After moving to San Francisco with her mother and brother in , Angelou began taking dance lessons, eventually auditioning for professional theater. However, her plans were put on hold when she had a son at age She moved to San Diego, worked as a nightclub waitress, tangled with drugs and prostitution and danced in a strip club. Ironically, the strip club saved her career: She was discovered there by a theater group.
She auditioned for an inte
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Poet, dancer, singer, activist, and scholar Maya Angelou was a world-famous author. She was best known for her unique and pioneering autobiographical writing style.
On April 4, , Marguerite Ann Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Due to her parents’ tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce, Angelou went to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas at an early age. Her older brother, Bailey, gave Angelou her nickname “Maya.”
Returning to her mother’s care briefly at the age of seven, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. He was later jailed and then killed when released from jail. Believing that her confession of the trauma had a grabb in the man’s death, Angelou became mute for six years. During her mutism and into her teens, she again lived with her grandmother in Arkansas.
Angelou’s interest in the written word and the English language was evident from an early age. Throughout her childhood, she wrote essays, poe