Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis,
Missouri) is an African-American poet, memoirist, actress, and
civil rights activist. She is best known for her autobiographical
writings I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) and All God's Children
Need Traveling Shoes (1986). Her volume of poetry, Just Give Me
a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die (1971) was nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize.
She has published numerous other collections of
verse and was an unwed mother. To support her young son, Clyde
Bailey Johnson, born in San Francisco, she danced in night clubs,
cooked at a Creole cafe, removed paint at a body shop, and was
a madam and prostitute at a San Diego brothel. However, she soon
returned home, to Stamps, Arkansas, then Louisville, Kentucky.
While working in a record shop in 1950, Marguerite met and married
Tosh Angelos, a Greek-American sailor. They lived in relative comfort
in Los Angeles, California, but social disapproval of their mixed-race
marriage caused the relationship to end after a few years.
Angelou's early activism led Martin Luther King, Jr. to request that
she become the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference in the 1960's. In the early and mid-1960s, Angelou was an
editor for newspapers in Africa, including The Arab Observer in Cairo,
Egypt and The African Review in Accra, Ghana. She returned to the United
States in the 1970s, being named a member of the Bicentennial Commission
by Gerald Ford and a member of the Commission for International Woman
of the Year by Jimmy Carter. She was given a lifetime appointment in
1981 as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She also read her poem On the Pulse
of Morning at Bill Clinton's Presidential inauguration in 1993, at
his request.
Angelou has had success as a director, producer, actor, and author
for stage, television, and film. She wrote the screenplay and score
for the film Georgia, Georgia in 1971; the screenplay was nominated
for a Pulitzer Prize. She was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for
Look Away (her debut role), and an Emmy for her role in the 1977 miniseries
Roots. She was the first African-American woman admitted to the Directors
Guild of America.
Comedian David Alan Grier spoofed Angelou while hosting the sketch
comedy show Saturday Night Live. Conceptually, the gag was that Angelou
(played by Grier) had been hired as the new spokesperson for Pennzoil
motor oils. In character, Grier read a poem dramatically, using Afrocentrism
as an analogy for motor oil. The bit was repeated during the same episode
with Grier-as-Angelou hawking Fruit Loops breakfast cereal. Angelou
is said to have requested a copy of the sketch on videotape because
she so enjoyed it.