20 Surprising Facts about Maya Angelou - World History Edu (2024)

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What are 10 interesting facts about Maya Angelou? ›

Maya Angelou (born April 4, 1928, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.—died May 28, 2014, Winston-Salem, North Carolina) was an American poet, memoirist, and actress whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression.

She spoke at least six languages. Angelou toured Europe as part of the hit opera Porgy and Bess in 1954-55, and spent time living in both Egypt and Ghana during the 1960s. As a result, she could speak French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language Fanti.

Angelou married three times in her life. The first, to Greek carpenter Tosh Angelos (1949-52), the second to South African activist Vusumzi L. Make (1960-63) and the third to carpenter Paul du Feu (1973-80). “I know that I'm not the easiest person to live with.

In 1952, she married a Greek sailor named Anastasios Angelopulos. When she began her career as a nightclub singer, she took the professional name Maya Angelou, combining her childhood nickname with a form of her husband's name. Although the marriage did not last, her performing career flourished.

Her favourite colour was pink. She studied dance on a scholarship. Throughout her life, she held varied roles including poet, author, playwright, and activist.

1942 - While a high school student, she studies drama and dance at the California Labor School, a college for adults. Drops out to become San Francisco's first female African American cable car conductor.

On April 4, 1928, Marguerite Ann Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Due to her parents' tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce, Angelou went to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas at an early age.

Louis, her mother's boyfriend raped Angelou. The man was arrested, convicted and released; soon after, he was found beaten to death. Believing she had caused the killing because she had told of the rape, Angelou refused to speak for several years; only her beloved older brother, Bailey, could coax her to talk.

Whatever he missed, he himself is a great father today. He was once asked what it was like growing up in Maya Angelou's shadow, and he said, “I always thought I was in her light.” Years later, when I was married, I wanted to have more children, but I couldn't conceive. Isn't it wonderful that I had a child at 16?

What happened to Maya Angelou when she was 7? ›

She also suffered violence at home when she was around the age of 7. During a visit with her mother, Maya was raped by her mother's boyfriend. As vengeance for the sexual assault, her uncles killed the boyfriend. Young Maya was so traumatized by the experience that she stopped talking.

Angelou was a Renaissance woman on many levels, treating life as a smorgasbord to be fully experienced then reporting it to inspire others to reach beyond damaging stereotypes.

Angelou's life story, beautifully told, is that of a black girl who grew up in the racism and sexism of the Depression-era South, was raped at a young age by her mother's boyfriend and was traumatized so badly by the experience that she stopped talking to everyone except her brother for five years.

Some of Maya Angelou's favorite things were mangoes and marshmallows and moose. She also liked writing memoirs. Mangoes, marshmallows, moose, and memoir all start with the letter M. Sesame Street is a production of Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization.