Maya Angelou

Posted October 2, 2007, 6:20 pm by Growing Bolder


Maya Angelou
Born: April 4, 1927

Author, poet, playwright, actress, director, educator and activist Maya Angelou overcame childhood homelessness and abuse to become one of the nation's most celebrated women. Her first autobiography, "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings," was published in 1970 when Angelou was 43 years old. It launched a prolific and hugely successful writing career and made her a favorite of everyone from Oprah Winfrey to President Bill Clinton. In 1971, she released, "Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die," a collection of poetry that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

After The Age of Seventy

• At age 71, she made her directorial film debut with 1998's "Down in the Delta."
• At age 75, she won hir third Grammy for  "A Song Flung Up to Heaven," respectively. 
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• At age 77, she was also nominated for a Grammy for "Hallelujah! The Welcome Table."
• At age 77, she released the "Complete Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou."
• At age 79, she has appeared in the play "Madea's Family Reunion."
• At age 79. she began hosting a weekly show on Oprah Winfrey's XM Satellite Radio channel "Oprah and Friends."
• Now in her 80s, she continues to author best-selling books and collections of poems.
• She also lectures at universities across the country.
  

Quotes:

• "At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice."
• "I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."
• "Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."
• "Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage."
• "Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends."

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