"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". This is a famous quote written by Maya Angelou. Angelou is known as one of the most influential African women of all times. She is best known for her famous poems about injustices, tribulations, and experiences that she went through. For instance, Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, and I know why the caged bird sings, are some of her examples. Angelou was not only a famous poet, but an inspirational speaker, book writer, civil rights activist, actress, and dancer. One of her most fascinating accomplishments is being the First African American woman, to have her screenplay produced. The name of her Screenplay
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To begin with Maya's parents got divorced when she was three, which is a hardship on all kids when that happens. Maya had a rough childhood, and had to go back and forth between her grandmother's home and her mother's due to the incidents that kept occurring. While living with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas she faced discrimination, because that was the legally enforced way of life in the South. Also, while living there she was able to gain the religious old-fashioned courtesy of traditional African American life. Even though it was hard dealing with discrimination her grandmother gave her the confidence and pride that she needed to gain the success she has now. One of the hardest struggles she had to overcome, like I mentioned earlier and that she mentions in her poems, is being molested at the age of eight. Maya was visiting her mother when her mother's boyfriend molested her. She confided in her brother, and he ended up telling. As a result, her mother's boyfriend was arrested and later beaten to death by her uncle. In fear that she caused his death, because she had spoken his name, Maya became silent for 5 years. Another tribulation that Maya had to go through was being a single mother at a young age. When Maya returned to high school her senior year, she soon became pregnant with her son Guy. She decided to leave home at the age of 16 as a single mother, and started a …show more content…
Her first accomplishment was becoming San Francisco's first African American female cable car conductor. It might not mean much now, but it meant a lot back then. She then started to use her talent of singing, by being a nightclub singer. Her success and accomplishments started to flourish from there. From 1954 to 1955 she toured Europe with a production of the opera "Porgy and Bess". Maya then started to use her talent of dance. She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television, and recorded her first album "Calypso Lady", in 1957. Maya was very talented when it came to writing. She used her skills of writing to write poetry and song lyrics, but at the end of the 1950's she wanted to do more with her talents and mature her skills of writing. With that motivation she moved to New York, and joined the other young black writers and artists of Harlem, associated with the Civil Rights Movement. That was when she acted in the Off- Broadway production of Jean Genet's "The Black's", and wrote and performed a "Cabaret for freedom" with actor and comedian Godfrey Cambridge. After falling in love with civil rights activist Vusumzi Make, Maya decided to take her and her son to live with him in Cairo, Egypt. While being there Maya served as the editor of the English language weekly the Arab Observer.
To begin with Maya's parents got divorced when she was three, which is a hardship on all kids when that happens. Maya had a rough childhood, and had to go back and forth between her grandmother's home and her mother's due to the incidents that kept occurring. While living with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas she faced discrimination, because that was the legally enforced way of life in the South. Also, while living there she was able to gain the religious old-fashioned courtesy of traditional African American life. Even though it was hard dealing with discrimination her grandmother gave her the confidence and pride that she needed to gain the success she has now. One of the hardest struggles she had to overcome, like I mentioned earlier and that she mentions in her poems, is being molested at the age of eight. Maya was visiting her mother when her mother's boyfriend molested her. She confided in her brother, and he ended up telling. As a result, her mother's boyfriend was arrested and later beaten to death by her uncle. In fear that she caused his death, because she had spoken his name, Maya became silent for 5 years. Another tribulation that Maya had to go through was being a single mother at a young age. When Maya returned to high school her senior year, she soon became pregnant with her son Guy. She decided to leave home at the age of 16 as a single mother, and started a …show more content…
Her first accomplishment was becoming San Francisco's first African American female cable car conductor. It might not mean much now, but it meant a lot back then. She then started to use her talent of singing, by being a nightclub singer. Her success and accomplishments started to flourish from there. From 1954 to 1955 she toured Europe with a production of the opera "Porgy and Bess". Maya then started to use her talent of dance. She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television, and recorded her first album "Calypso Lady", in 1957. Maya was very talented when it came to writing. She used her skills of writing to write poetry and song lyrics, but at the end of the 1950's she wanted to do more with her talents and mature her skills of writing. With that motivation she moved to New York, and joined the other young black writers and artists of Harlem, associated with the Civil Rights Movement. That was when she acted in the Off- Broadway production of Jean Genet's "The Black's", and wrote and performed a "Cabaret for freedom" with actor and comedian Godfrey Cambridge. After falling in love with civil rights activist Vusumzi Make, Maya decided to take her and her son to live with him in Cairo, Egypt. While being there Maya served as the editor of the English language weekly the Arab Observer.