Who is Maya Angelou?

Except for a select few, it is nearly impossible for one person to be so multi-skilled as to know how to do nearly everything in a field of expertise. The same cannot be said of Maya Angelou who was a poet, novelist actress, singer, dancer and even at one time a director.

Angelou was born as Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. Although undeniably talented, this artist was not born into a state of privilege and at an early age already experienced the hardships and travails of life. At the age of three, Angelou's parents were divorced which necessitated her having to live with her grandmother at Stamps, Arkansas. While there she entered dance classes and learned early on how to dance the foxtrot and the salsa among others.

Angelou was later returned to her mother but at eight years old she became mute until she was thirteen after being traumatized. She had revealed that she had been sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend. Enraged, Angelou's relatives beat the man up until he was dead.

At a later age after spending some time with her father, she ran away after being attacked by her father's girlfriend. She spent some time on the streets collecting and selling bottles, until a month after, she was able to return to her mother. At 16, she conceived her son Guy Johnson. To make ends meet she started singing at a nightclub in San Francisco.

From her humble and troubled beginnings, Angelou began to conquer the world of arts. In 1969, Angelou published her first masterpiece in literature, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, her autobiography which reveals her troubled early life and her struggle to transcend. Her other literary works include The Heart of a Woman, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, Singin' and Swingin' and Getting' Merry Like Christmas and Gather Together in My Name. She was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for her volume of poetry Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die.

On the big screen and on television Angelou wrote the screenplay, for which she was nominated for a Pulitzer, and the score for Georgia, Georgia. She was also nominated for a Tony Award for her role in Look Away and an Emmy Award for her part in Roots. She directed an episode of Visions and the film Down in the Delta and became the first Black American woman to be accepted in the Directors' Guild of America. In 1978, she hosted Humanities in the Arts, an educational series which revolved around poetry, literature, film and architecture.In 1993, she won a Grammy Award for On the Pulse of Morning. In 2005, Oprah Winfrey honored Angelou and other Black American women for their inspirational work and lives.

Although Angelou never got a college degree, she was accorded many honorary doctorates. She is the lifetime chair as a professor of American studies at Wake Forest University. She has also been honored with a fellowship at Yale University.