Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was born April 4, 1928. Her real name is Marguerite

Johnson, but she later changed it to Maya. She was born in St.

Louis, shortly after her birth her family up and move to

Arkansaw. Maya grew up there in the rural parts of Arkansaw, and

later married to a South African Freedom Fighter. She lived in

Cairo with him, there she began her career as editor of the Arab

Observer. At the request of Dr. Martin Lutheran King Jr., she

became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian

Leadership Conference in 1975. Maya is presently on the board of

American Film Institute, and is one of the few female members of

the board of the Directors Guide. (Source card #5)

Besides being a writer she is also an actress, historian,

and playwright. She speaks French, Spanish, Italian, and West

African Fanti. Maya had a career in drama and dance. She had

ten best-selling books published and was in a number of magazine

articles. Maya was among the first African-American women to hit

the best sellers list with "I know why the caged bird sings."

(Source card #2)

Maya Angelou is a poet, historian, author, actress,

playwright, civil rights, activist, producer and director. Maya

published ten best-selling books. Maya Angelou is more than just

another famous woman, she is a role model and inspiration to the

world. Her simple motto, "I am human and nothing human can be

alien to me" is a statement related to love. This simple

sentence touched many a people. Love each other, that is what

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her life is about. "The honorary duty of a human being is to

love, and love I will," Maya Angelou said, quoting from her work.

(Source card #3)

Maya Angelou gave hope to the hopeless and inspiration to

the world. Through her poems and stories she has made us realize

the role we play, or rather need to start playing. She made a

lot of people get up off there butts and do something about the

decaying world which lies around us. Maya Angelou has given me

alone, hope that I can make a difference in our slowly dying

world. Her poems speak about the turmoil our world is in. She

encourages us to love, love, and love. (Source card #4)

In her poem "Human Family", Angelou says, "We are more

alike, my friends, then we are unlike." Maya's poems, which

include "Equality" and "These yet to be United States", show the

pain of humanity and the ignorance of the world. My favorite

poem "Phenomenal Woman" shows what it's like to be a woman now a