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Maya Angelou was married twice , To paul du feu , Enistasious Tosh Angelos

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1951- recently married a Greek electrician and former sailor named Enistasious (Tosh) Angelos. He's also an aspiring musician. There is lots of disapproval towards us, mostly because he's white and I'm black. My mother is one of the largest to disapprove. and, consequentially, the one I'm most afraid of. I'm also taking some modern dance classes, and I met some legends like Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford.

1954-1955- I toured Europe in the production of Porgy and Bess. I try to learn the language of every country I visit throughout the tour, and if I say so myself I have become pretty good at some of them.

1957- Exciting news! I recorded my very own album. Calypso music has become so popular, I decided to ride with the trends. My album is called Miss Calypso. You should look into it!

1960- In my travels in Egypt, I met a civil rights activist over there named Vusumzi Make. We married and then moved to Cairo, in Egypt. That was where I got my job as an editor for The Arab Observer. I was just given a job offer in Ghana to teach music and drama at university there, so I think that will be my next move. I'm busy, busy, busy!

1964- I'm back in America now. Malcom X, the famous and very inspiring civil rights activist, convinced me to come back and build an organization. He has the idea of calling it, "The Organization of African American Unity." I guess we'll have to see how this goes.

1968- Today I'm delivering to you bad news and.. news. The bad news is, my good friend Malcom X, as I talked about in my last entry, has been assassinated. It's just a reminder of the cause we're fighting for. The news is that I have begun writing my autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I predict it will be at least two years until someone agrees to publish it.

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1951- recently married a Greek electrician and former sailor named Enistasious (Tosh) Angelos. He's also an aspiring musician. There is lots of disapproval towards us, mostly because he's white and I'm black. My mother is one of the largest to disapprove. and, consequentially, the one I'm most afraid of.

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Maya Angelou died at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Wednesday, said her literary agent, Helen Brann. Angelou had been "frail" and suffering from heart problems

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legendary author maya angelou dies at age 86 - cnn

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Legendary author Maya Angelou dies at age 86 - CNN

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Maya Angelou, a novelist, actress and educator, died at age 86, her literary agent, Helen Brann, said Wednesday.

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Angelou had a difficult childhood. Her parents split up when she was very young, and she and her older brother, Bailey, were sent to live with their father's mother, Anne Henderson, in Stamps, Arkansas. ... Then, as vengeance for the sexual assault

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I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.

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Maya Angelou was one of America's most beloved and celebrated poets and authors, with dozens of awards and over 50 honorary degrees attesting to her inspirational role at the center of American life. In 1993, she was invited to recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's inauguration, making her the first poet since 1961 to deliver an inaugural recitation. Her lifetime of achievement was rewarded in 2000 when she received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2010 President Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the country's highest honors.

The famed author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), the first of her seven autobiographies for which she became known, lived a long and storied life. We know her well as a memoirist, essayist and poet, who authored several books of poetry, three books of essays, and a list of plays, movies, and television shows. She was also a journalist who worked in Africa, a historian, songwriter, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer and singer.

And as an activist, she was one of the Civil Rights Movement's most prominent women, who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and devoted her life to being a tireless voice for women and black people - and for an open-hearted vision of humanity where all could find their place. On May 28, 2014, the great Maya Angelou passed away at the age of 86, leaving a legacy that will surely be cherished for many decades to come.

We've gathered 25 of Maya Angelou's most powerful and insightful quotes, hoping that it injects a hearty dose of beauty and inspiration into your day. Enjoy!

25 Maya Angelou Quotes to Inspire Your Life

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love.

If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.

We need much less than we think we need.

If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?

Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.

Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.

If you're always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

Seek patience and passion in equal amounts. Patience alone will not build the temple. Passion alone will destroy its walls.

Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.

A wise woman wishes to be no one's enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone's victim.

You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.

Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

We are only as blind as we want to be.

I got my own back.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

Determine to live life with flair and laughter.

I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.

I work very hard, and I play very hard. I'm grateful for life. And I live it - I believe life loves the liver of it. I live it.

Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.

Courage - you develop courage by doing small things like just as if you wouldn't want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself.

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25 Maya Angelou Quotes to Inspire Your Life

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Maya Angelou was one of America's most beloved and celebrated poets and authors, with dozens of awards and over 50 honorary degrees attesting to her inspirational role at the center of American life. In 1993, she was invited to recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's inauguration, making her the first poet since 1961 to deliver an inaugural recitation.

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And still I rise , I know why the cage bird sings , Mom & Me & Mom

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Maya Angelou has one children , Guy Johnson

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AALBC.com, the African American Literature Book Club

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Guy Johnson, Author Info, Published Books, Bio, Photo, Video, and More

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Guy Johnson author information including a biography, photograph, list of published books, video, interviews, articles, book reviews and more.

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ladies family reunion , Root , Down in the Delta , poetic justice ,

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*There are many riveting, untold stories in the American Masters documentary "Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise," premiering Feb 21 at 8 p.m. on PBS.

The film from Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack explores all 360 degrees of the late author and activist, including her early days as a dancer and singer.

There's also a moment in the film where Dr. Angelou explains coming across a certain rapper on the set of John Singleton's 1993 film "Poetic Justice." Angelou's poetry gave the film its play-on-words title, and Singleton cast her in a cameo role.

Angelou had no idea who 'Pac was when the emcee became agitated by something on set, prompting Angelou to pull him to the side and give him a lil' talking to.

Watch below:

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That Time Maya Angelou Had to Calm Down Tupac Shakur on the 'Poetic Justice' Set (Watch) | EURweb

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There are many riveting, untold stories in the American Masters documentary "Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise," premiering Feb 21 at 8 p.m. on PBS. The film from Bob Hercules and Rita Coburn Whack explores all 360 degrees of the late author and activist, including her early days as a dancer and singer.

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May 28, 2014,

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On Wednesday morning, the world lost one of its greatest authors - Maya Angelou, who passed away at the age of 86 in her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. An essayist, poet, and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou's talents were far-ranging and widely respected, and her fame far extended beyond the literary world. Angelou's artistry served the distinct purpose of criticizing social injustices, and her influence has seen her mainstay in two presidential committees, won her three Grammy's, and earned her 50 honorary degrees from universities around the country. More importantly, Angelou served as a voice and a remarkable influence to millions.

The sheer volume of work Angelou produced over the course of her 86 years makes her a legend, but many of her most interesting and impressive accomplishments remain unknown, overshadowed by such famous and widely-read works as I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and And I Still Rise. For many students, Angelou's work is required reading, and yet, we know relatively little of the incredible resume of an even more phenomenal woman. As we remember her life and celebrate her legacy, here are nine things about Maya Angelou that you might not have known.

1. She was San Francisco's first African-American female cable car conductor

Michael Loccisano/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

Angelou knew she was destined for the arts from a young age, and studied dance in drama in California at San Francisco's Labor School. It was here that she was first familiarized with progressivism and social justice issues that would inform much of her later work and activism. But at 14, she decided to leave the school, and instead, became the first black woman to operate cable cars in the city, all before she was 20.

2. She was mute for five years

In 1937, Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend, a man named Mr. Freeman. Following this incident, Angelou stopped speaking, and remained mute until 1942. Freeman was tried for the sexual abuse, but was later found beaten to death, likely by Angelou's uncles. Later, she explained her silence, "My 7-and-a-half-year-old logic deduced that my voice had killed him, so I stopped speaking for almost six years." This was the inspiration for Angelou's famed I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

3. She was featured on a stamp in Ghana

From 1960 to 1966, Angelou lived in Africa, first in Egypt, where she served as the editor of The Arab Observer, and later, in Ghana, where she taught music and dance at the University of Ghana. In addition to teaching, Angelou continued to write, and her works were featured in The African Review and The Ghanaian Times. Her influence in the African nation was so strong that it earned her a stamp.

4. She wrote the screenplay for Georgia, Georgia

Not only was her screenplay for Georgia, Georgia made into a movie in 1972, but she was also the first African-American woman to have an original screenplay produced as a film. The film explores racial tensions and is consistent with many themes commonly found in Angelou's work.

5. She spoke at least six languages

Due to her extensive travels, Angelou became well-versed in many languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and the West African language Fanti.

6. Nelson Mandela read her poem during his inauguration

Angelou was close friends with many civil rights giants, including Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Nelson Mandela. The South African president read her poem, And Still I Rise after winning the election in 1994. After his death, the U.S. State Department commissioned Angelou to write a poem in honor of the leader, entitled His Day Is Done.

7. She wrote for Hallmark

Imagine getting a card from Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou once held a contract with Hallmark, in which she wrote poems and short verses for greeting cards, pillowcases, and other various pieces of memorabilia.

8. She only traveled by bus

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Angelou did not enjoy flying, and gave it up in 1999. Instead, the poet made her way around the country by bus. But not just any old bus, a decked-out state-of-the-art tour bus fit for a rockstar. The vehicle doubled as a home for Angelou, and as such, it had to be functional, comfortable, and generally awesome. With gourmet meals, a shower, a bedroom, and even a living room, Angelou knew how to travel in style.

9. She was very tall

Angelou was an enormous presence in every sense of the world, and has left an incomparable legacy. By the time she was 14, she was six feet tall, and she continued to tower over the world for the next seven decades. Her imposing stature combined with her incredible intellect made her an intimidating force to be reckoned with.

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9 Things You Didn't Know About Maya Angelou

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On Wednesday morning, the world lost one of its greatest authors - Maya Angelou, who passed away at the age of 86 in her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. An essayist, poet, and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou's talents were far-ranging and...

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April 4, 1928

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Dr. Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. During her 87 years of life, Dr. Angelou found her calling as a poet, a memoirist, a singer, a journalist, an actress, a screenwriter, a director, and a Civil Rights activist. She worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, danced with Alvin Ailey, mentored Oprah Winfrey and delivered her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. Her storied career touched so many-from those she worked with and wrote alongside, to those she taught, to the countless readers who have pored over the words in the pages of her seven autobiographies, three essay collections and multiple volumes of poetry, to the authors who were inspired to write because they felt represented by her-her legacy lives on, even after her death in 2014. In honor of what would have been Dr. Maya Angelou's 90th birthday, we asked authors to share their memories of the acclaimed poet-moments they shared together, how her writing made them feel represented and seen and how she inspired them to keep writing-forming a tribute to an incredible woman whose life and work have touched us all.

When I was a young writing instructor, I used to teach Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings among the required readings. It's an exceptionally inspiring example of discovering one's own voice, both literally and figuratively, after an experience of trauma-linked silence. Although unspeakable events can demand a period of self-imposed muteness, there can also, eventually, come a time when truth insists on being told.

Many of my students, I knew, were carrying a history of individual and collective trauma. As a daughter of two Holocaust survivors, I was familiar with the effort of sorting through the stories that can be told and the ones that, for various reasons, remain hidden. Trauma is by definition a territory whose verbal and non-verbal language can elude us. What Maya Angelou revealed was the willingness to listen all the way through silence, knowing its shape and necessity, until a true narrative can be found. Sometimes we need to sing our way out of a cage, to embrace the void and then fill it with music.

Some years ago, I was the M.C. at a benefit for the East Harlem Tutorial Program. The schedule for the evening was that four or five authors would read from their work, and the readings would be followed by a reception. If there seemed to be time after the final author's reading, I was to read a short piece of my own. The final author was Maya Angelou. She was in command of the room before she reached the podium. As I remember her performance, she began with a dramatic recitation of a poem. Then she read from one of her books. Then she sang. Then she recited another poem. When she finished, to thunderous applause, I walked toward the podium. My wife was sitting close to the stage, and I caught her eye. She didn't need to shake her head. The expression on her face read, "I hope you're not going to try to follow that." When I reached the microphone, I said, "Our thanks to our authors and to the audience. I hope you will all join us for the reception."

Austin Channing Brown, author of I'm Still Here

Every black woman I know would count Maya Angelou among the voices that shaped their lives. She spoke our language to ourselves. She reinforced what our mommas told us about our beauty in the privacy of our homes, but she declared it before the world. Even now I can hear Maya Angelou's deep voice reciting her own poetry. But I think what I love even more is that I can hear Angelou's words in my mother's voice, reciting the words "phenomenal woman" in the kitchen. I can hear my first black teacher declaring, "Still, I rise." I can hear my friends declaring it over one another like a benediction. I can hear Angelou's words in the voice of Oprah, in the voice of Nicki Minaj, in the voice of Serena Williams, and so many other black women icons who have all found strength in her poetry and advice. Her words have become ours, and I am grateful. Happy birthday, Maya Angelou. Your words are still rising in my soul.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings confirmed, redirected, and gave new value to my life with Angelou's candid, unfiltered expressions. Her personal triumph over her fears and difficulties, her ability to navigate through the harsh realities of broken and misguided events, human failure and shortcomings by loved ones, dysfunction and abandonment she suffered and overcame, would become my strength, rock, and encouragement. Would change my life and fuel the power of my dreams. Because of Maya Angelou, my dreams became writings, my inner voice became my eyes, while giving me permission to love and honor myself. Who would have thought that years later, a young Black boy from the south, all grown up, an opera singer of note on the world stage, would meet and become friendly with the woman who through her writings lit the fire in my soul, a fire to last a lifetime.

Thanks to Maya, at a young age I learned one of life's most valuable skills. I read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in the ninth grade, on my own, at a time (the mid-1970s) when the only assigned literature in school was written by white authors. Maya was the first writer to speak directly to me! And she said: no matter what torment you face, each time dig deep within yourself for courage-that element made of steel.

I got to see Maya Angelou in person once, and it changed my life. Up close, it was even more apparent that hers was an elegant intellect, the kind that humbled and inspired. You knew you were neither as well-read nor as wise as she was, but it was clear she shared who she was not to intimidate but to convince you those insights were within your reach, too, if only you were willing to do the arduous work, the soul-searching, the research she had obviously done. She wanted you to want to walk that path, for the more of us who took up her gentle challenge to better ourselves, no matter the obstacles, the more it would benefit humanity as a whole, and that seemed to be her lifelong goal.

That's what came through as I listened to her speak when I was a student at Davidson College in North Carolina and struggling to adjust to that predominantly white, upper-middle-class and wealthy environment as a black boy from a poor, rural, segregated school in the heart of the Deep South. Her words steeled my spine, opened my mind like little else, made my spirit sprout wings. Before that day, I knew why the caged birds sang. But because I saw her be an unapologetically strong black woman, comfortable in her dark skin, standing before a sea of people who didn't look like her, I knew I could be a strong black man.

The first time I saw Maya Angelou was in 1993 on the television during President Clinton's inauguration. I was eight years old, already a writer in temperament if not practice, attending a school so white and Midwestern that recess supervisors confused kids with snowdrifts. The next day we read "On the Pulse of Morning" during language arts and, with Ms. Marty's help, parsed its virtues dutifully. Sadly, I don't remember these virtues because I was too busy mooning over Robbie Irwin. Thank God I rediscovered Angelou in my 20s when I was Robbie-free and far better equipped.

What a radical she was! And she stayed that way, despite efforts to relegate her to that declawed status of "national treasure." When I picture her now, on what would be her 90th birthday, I see her sitting on a couch with Dave Chappelle in their now-famed 2014 interview. "If you're not angry, you're a stone," she says, brow furrowed, "or you're too sick to be angry." Then her face lights up into the most radiant smile. "But mind you, you must never be bitter."

I met Maya Angelou before she was Maya Angelou. She was Maya Make, the partner of one of the South African freedom fighters exiled in Ghana, where she and I belonged to the community of Afro-American (that was our name then) supporters of President Kwame Nkrumah's idealistic notion of pan-African socialism. It was the mid-1960s, and Maya and I lived in Legon, home of the University of Ghana. She, a statuesque actor and dancer, was studying music and dance at the Institute of African Studies. I, newly graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, taught French and broadcast the news in French on Ghana Radio. She didn't yet have the eminence of Maya Angelou, but she possessed the stance, fluency, and voice that we recognize in the icon.

We Afro-Americans scattered after a coup d'état in Ghana deposed Nkrumah in 1965-Maya to Egypt and New York and the writing career that made her a star. As she grew bigger and brighter in American culture, she remained down-to-earth and, well, earthy. She never forgot it was her work that grounded her, and she passed that wisdom on to me: to keep at my own work- my work, the work that only I could do-as she did the work only she could do, magnificently.

In the 1980s, while she lived in Winston-Salem, where she was a distinguished professor at Wake Forest University, and I lived in Chapel Hill, where I was a professor of history at the University of North Carolina, she graciously made a short film with me in her house. I was sometimes her guest there, which I saw as more and more a privilege as her stature increased and the masses of admirers pressed upon her. Her mother, an extraordinary figure in her own right, spent time with Maya in Winston-Salem. Once, when she and I were both visiting, Maya's mother taught me how to knit continental style, a skill fellow sailors from Switzerland had taught her when she was working as a merchant sailor. I still knit that way, though both Maya and her mother have passed on.

Maya taught me not only about greatness but also about how lives change over time. She was not yet the Great Maya Angelou when I met her, but the seed was obviously there. I was honored to see it grow and flower into a towering tree of American literary greatness.

Bryan Stevenson, author of

Maya Angelou had a unique voice filled with love, wisdom, understanding, and compassion. Shaped by sorrow, adversity, strength, and resilience, she had a brilliant intellect and powerful insights about the human condition. She taught many of us how to confront our fears with humility but to trust our legacy as survivors. She was that rarest of lights that can illuminate you and the world surrounding you from the inside out.

Featured Image: Stephen Parker/Alamy Stock Photo

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Authors Celebrate 90 Years of Maya Angelou | Read It Forward

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Dr. Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. During her 87 years of life, Dr. Angelou found her calling as a poet, a memoirist, a singer, a journalist, an actress, a screenwriter, a director, and a Civil Rights activist.

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Maya Angelou was an American poet, singer, and more ...