Who was Maya Angelou?
A: Maya Angelou born Marguerite Annie Johnson was an American memoirist,
popular poet, and civil rights activist.
She published how many autobiographies?
A: Seven.
She wrote three books of essays and several books of
what?
A: Poetry.
She is credited with a list of plays, movies, and
television shows spanning how many years?
A: Over 50.
She received dozens of awards and how many honorary
degrees.?
A: More than 50.
Angelou is best known for her series of seven
autobiographies, which focus on what?
A: Her childhood and early adult experiences.
The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969),
tells of her life up to what?
A: The age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
She became a poet and writer after a string of what?
A: Odd jobs during her young adulthood.
These included what?
A: Fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member,
Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in
Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa.
She was also what?
A: An actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public
television programs.
In 1982, she was named the first what?
A: Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
She was active in what movement?
A: The Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and
Malcolm X.
Beginning in the 1990s, she made how many appearances a
year on the lecture circuit?
A: Approximately 80, something she continued into her eighties.
In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of
Morning" (1993) at what?
A: The first inauguration of Bill Clinton.
She was the first poet to make an inaugural recitation
since what?
A: Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.
With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her what?
A: Her personal life.
She was respected as a spokesperson for whom?
A: Black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of
Black culture.
Her works are widely used in what?
A: Schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to
ban her books from some U.S. libraries.
Angelou's most celebrated works have been labeled as
autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be what?
A: Autobiographies.
Her books center on what themes?
A: Racism, identity, family and travel.
Where was she born?
A: She was born in St. Louis, Missouri.
When was she born?
A: On April 4, 1928.
She was the second child of who?
A: Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter)
Johnson, a nurse and card dealer.
When Angelou was three and her brother four, their
parents' "calamitous marriage" ended, and their father sent them where?
A: To Stamps, Arkansas, alone by
train, to live with their paternal
grandmother, Annie Henderson.
Four years later, when Angelou was seven and her
brother eight, the children's father did what?
A: He came to Stamps without warning and returned them to their mother's
care in St. Louis.
At the age of eight, while living with her mother,
Angelou was sexually abused and raped by whom?
A: By her mother's boyfriend, a man named Freeman.
She told her brother, who told whom?
A: The rest of their family.
Freeman was found guilty and was jailed for how long?
A: Only one day.
Four days after his release, he was what?
A: Murdered, probably by Angelou's uncles.
Angelou became mute for almost five years, believing
what?
A: She thought, her voice killed him because she told his name.
According to Marcia Ann Gillespie and her colleagues,
who wrote a biography about Angelou, it was during this period of silence
when Angelou developed her what?
A: Her extraordinary memory, her love for books and
literature, and her
ability to listen and observe the world around her.
Shortly after Freeman's murder, when Angelou was eight
and her brother nine, Angelou and her brother were sent where?
A: Back to their grandmother.
Angelou credits a teacher and friend of her family,
Mrs. Bertha Flowers, with helping her speak again, challenging her by saying
what?
A: "You do not love poetry, not until you speak it".
