“Nothing will work unless you do” (Maya Angelou). That’s exactly what she did having titles such as civil rights activist, poet, memoirist, actress, and screenwriter. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and has plays, movies, and television shows. Maya Angelou received several awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. She is also known for her famous poem I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, expressing her feelings about her early life. She had a hard life and overcame her struggle and became a very influential person to so many people including me.
Maya Angelou born Marguerite Annie Johnson born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents are Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian,
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During this she worried about her sexuality, she thought she was a lesbian. To find out she asked a popular neighborhood boy to have sex with her. Three weeks later she found out she was pregnant. She hid it from her parents and later wrote them a note saying she was pregnant. They accepted it and embraced the baby boy as their own. Maya decided to get a job and support her son by herself. “I had no understanding about anything...But I had the determination to raise my child” (Cox 24). After various jobs at restaurants she decided to start dancing and performed at nightclubs. After working in Hawaiian night clubs she and her son who changed his name to Guy moved to Sausalito California. In 1959 Maya wrote song lyrics, sketches, and short stories. John Killens, and author, told her she had talent and to come to New York. “You need to be in the Harlem Writers Guild” (Cox 45). She attended the Harlem Writers Guild with a group of African American writers to critique one another’s work. Paule Marshall, another writer, encouraged her to revise her play. She decided to not rewrite the play. She couldn’t resist the challenge of doing the impossible which influenced her hard work in …show more content…
Her hard life started when she was only 3 not even knowing what was really going on. She got raped by her mother’s boyfriend later on in life and didn’t talk for a while because she was afraid her words made bad things happen to people. When she was 16 she got pregnant with her son Guy, and told herself she would work hard to take care of her son. From then on she had many jobs including working at restaurants, a dancer, a writer, and an activist. Eventually after working at many different jobs she did something she loved to do. She had a stage career for a while and started touring around the world. Maya’s screenplay for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia was one of the first by an African American woman ever to be