Maya Angelou is not just known for being a poet, novelist, educator, producer, actor, musician, and civil right activist, but also as one of the most renowned and influential voices. This is why I chose to write a biography report on Mrs. Maya Angelou. I choose to write about Maya because she is one of my favorite African American poets. Maya has been able to use her past to influence the future, whether it be by talking about her childhood traumas or the racism she encountered growing up in Arkansas and throughtout her adult life. She has become a symbol of strenthg overcoming struggle. The purpose of this biography is to talk about the impacts Maya Angelou had on social and political issues in America.
Maya Angelou was born April 4, 1928 St. Louis, Missouri. Her birth name is Marguerite Annie Johnson. Her parent’s split when she was young, Maya and her older brother, Bailey, went to live with her paternal grandmother, Anne Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas. (Biography.com Editors, 2017) At the age of 17, after having a sexual
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She received two National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, in 2005 and 2009. (Biography.com Editors, 2017) In February (2003), she won a Grammy for the recorded reading of her most recent memoir, A Song Flung Up to Heaven. Her works have earned her more than 30 honorary degrees as well as nominations for a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. She wrote “On the Pulse of Morning” for the 1993 swearing-in of President Bill Clinton, becoming only the second poet in U. S. history—Robert Frost was the first, for John F. Kennedy— invited to compose an inaugural poem. She also delievered that poem on President Clintons inauguration. (Moore, 2003) In 2011, President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidental medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. (Brown,