Maya Angelou: Author and Poet - National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) | Library of Congress (2024)

FAQs

What disability does Maya Angelou have? ›

A little known fact about Dr. Angelou is that she had selective mutism. Stemming from a childhood trauma, she refused to utter a word for five full years. It was during her silent years that her love of language and listening grew.

With nearly half a million ratings, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" is the most popular Maya Angelou book according to Goodreads members. The first in a series of autobiographies, this memoir shares Maya's experience with being sent to live with her grandmother and the traumatic event that changed her life.

In 1969, Angelou published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, an autobiography of her early life. Her tale of personal strength amid childhood trauma and racism resonated with readers and was nominated for the National Book Award.

Angelou had a broad career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood's first female black director, but became most famous as a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet. As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.

overcome prejudice, discrimination and abuse. Throughout her life, Angelou defied social norms. After being raped by her mother's boyfriend, she withdrew and was mute for five years.

Maya became mute after he was found, believing that her voice killed him. She then moved back to her grandmother's where a teacher helped her overcome being mute. Her teacher introduced Maya to authors like Shakespeare, Dickens, Edgar Allen Poe, and many others and Maya developed a love for literature.

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).

As an African American, Angelou experienced firsthand racial prejudices and discrimination in Arkansas. 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.

Guy Johnson

Maya Angelou / Children

After completing college in Ghana, Guy Johnson managed a bar on Spain's Costa del Sol, ran a photo-safari service from London through Morocco and Algeria, and worked on oil rigs in Kuwait. Most recently he worked in the local government of Oakland, California, for more than twenty years. ...

Google Books

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.

Why did Maya Angelou go mute? ›

Freeman was found guilty but was jailed for only one day. Four days after his release, he was murdered, probably by Angelou's uncles. Angelou became mute for almost five years, believing she was to blame for his death; as she stated: "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name.

Angelou has received more than 30 honorary degrees and has been inducted into the Wake Forest University Hall of Fame for Writers. In 2010 President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor.

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” “We may encounter many defeats, but we must not be defeated. It may even be necessary to encounter the defeat, so that we can know who we are.”

Maya Angelou worked as a cook, streetcar conductor, waitress, singer, dancer, editor, teacher, civil rights organizer, and actress before becoming one of America's most beloved writers.

Childhood trauma and selective mutism

At the age of eight, she was sexually abused. Her rapist was found guilty but spent only a single day in jail. After his release, he was beaten to death. Consequently, little Maya simply stopped speaking.

Angelou gave birth to Johnson when she was a teenager. In his late 20s, he was in a car accident that damaged his spinal cord and left him temporarily paralyzed. Article continues after video. “Guy Johnson is a wonder,” Angelou is quoted as saying of her son in an interview with the Associated Press.

Maya and her brother returned to live with their grandmother and during her 5 years of silence, Maya was introduced to literature. Eventually, a teacher and family friend, Bertha Flowers, helped her to speak again, using the power of the written word.