Legendary author, poet, civil rights activist and one-time Harlem resident Maya Angelou has died.
Her passing was announced by the mayor of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she lived and worked as a professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University for more than 30 years.
Sources say her caretaker found her overnight.
Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1928.
In her teens, she began her lifelong love affair with the arts, becoming a dancer, singer and actress in the 1950′s and studying under figures such as Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham.
After stints as a playwright and newspaper editor, Angelou wrote her best known work, the 1970 autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.”
She continued to write numerous volumes of poetry and memoirs, drawing from her experiences growing up in the segregated south and suffering trauma at a young age.
She was also celebrated for her stirring poetry recitations at Presidential inaugurations for both Bill Clinton in 1993 and George W. Bush in 2005.
Angelou was honored by President Barack Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.
It’s the highest honor a civilian can receive.
She is survived by her son Guy Johnson and several grandchildren.
Maya Angelou was 86 years old.
http://ift.tt/1tomuXs
via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1
No comments:
Post a Comment