04.23.2024
Today, We Celebrate The Life and Legacy Of Dr. Maya Angelou on what would have been her 96th Earth Day!
On This Day In TCXPI History
Dr. Maya Angelou, Social and Civil Rights Activist, and Hall Of Fame Author and Poet was born Marguerite Ann Johnson, April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri.
As a teenager, Dr. Angelou’s love for the arts won her a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School. At 14, she dropped out to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor.
In 1957, she recorded her first album, “Miss Calypso,” and was featured in the movie “Calypso Heat Wave.”
In the late 1950s, Maya Angelou w1àas active in the Civil Rights Movement, serving as the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Maya Angelou’s first and best known book, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (1969), was nominated for a National Book Award and her 1971 volume of poetry, “Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie,” was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
In 1993, she recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the inauguration of President William Clinton. Her recording of the poem won the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word or Non-Traditional Album.
Maya Angelou also won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for “Phenomenal Woman” in 1995 and “A Song Flung Up to Heaven” in 2002.
Maya Angelou was the 1994 recipient of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Spingarn Medal.
In 1998, Maya Angelou was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts, the highest honor the nation bestows on an individual artist, by President Clinton December 20, 2000, and in 2008 was awarded the Lincoln Medal.
On February 15, 2011, Maya Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
Maya Angelou has been awarded over 30 honorary doctorate degrees. She has published seven autobiographies, the most recent in 2013, “Mom & Me & Mom.”
Maya Angelou began her transition May 28, 2014, in Winston-Salem, NC.
Sources:
The Wright Museum Blog
Caged Bird Legacy, LLC
(Accessed on 04/03/2015)
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Cynthia Chinue X Cornelius
CEO and Founder
The Chinue X Project Inc
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