8 Things you didn’t know about Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is a celebrated poet, autobiographer and activist whose prolific accolades have garnered widespread attention. While her personal and professional triumphs have preceded her, Angelou has faced countless misfortunes in her life, only to come out stronger, empowering others in the process. Although much of her life is largely known, there may be a few things that have eluded her fans. Listed below are a few things you may not know about Maya Angelou.
Angelou penned six autobiographies:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gather Together in My Name, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas, The Heart of a Woman, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes and A Song Flung Up to Heaven.
You may know that Angelou was raped as a child, but what you may not know was that she didn’t speak for years after her rapist was murdered. After she bravely spoke out about her sexual abuse at the hand of her mother’s boyfriend, who in turn was jailed for only one day, men thought to be Angelou’s uncles murdered the attacker. Believing that her voice caused his death, Angelou was mute for five years after the incident.
Although she is a renowned poet, Angelou also wrote cookbooks, namely, Great Food,
All Day Long and Hallelujah! The Welcome
Table. In an interview in The Guardian, she said that she believed people won’t overeat if they eat what they want when they feel like it, such as “fried rice for breakfast”.
In addition to cookbooks, she also wrote Hallmark greetings, despite her editors' disapproval. “If I’m America’s poet, or one of them, then I want to be in people’s hands… people who would never buy a book” she told USA Today.
She also guest starred on popular children’s show Sesame Street.
Angelou was also multilingual and was proficient in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Arabic and West African Fanti.
She never had the opportunity to go to college, but by the time of her death, Angelou was bestowed with more than 30 honorary degrees from colleges and universities in the US. She wore many hats before becoming a successful writer and poet. She was a fry cook, stripper, sex worker, streetcar conductor, nightclub performer, actress, coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a journalist in Egypt and Ghana.