Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou, best known for her strikingly candid poetry and autobiographical accounts, also excelled in many other creative endeavors; she became a successful essayist and playwright, singer, dancer, actress, composer, director, and activist.  Her writing was reflective of a shared Black-American female experience and personally influenced by the events of her life. In 1969, her first published work “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, brought sexual assault into the national conversation by discussing her own experience with the trauma of rape.

Angelou went on to work with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010 for her contributions to racial activism.

1928-2014, USA