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Biography Of Maya Angelou

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“A Phenomenal Woman”: Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was a woman of many names. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928. Her father, Bailey Johnson, was a doorman and a naval dietician. Her mother, Vivian Johnson, was a professional gambler, registered nurse, and owned a rooming house and bar. As a young girl she endured abuse and trauma that eventually led her to stop talking, for six years she believed that her voice had killed the man who had attacked her but through writing and performing, she found her voice. “I am Maya Angelou, whatever that means to whomever it means.”

Angelou wrote in several categories of writing and performing as a poet, author, scriptwriter, actress, and composer. Angelou had a voice that demanded to be heard. a voice to all that had been quieted and\or overlooked. Her work brought her acclaim and awards from all over the place. She even read at Bill Clinton’s very first inauguration and was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama. Over the years …show more content…

First she married Tosh Angelos in 1950 only to be divorced two years later, then married Paul Du Feu in 1973 but soon divorced in 1981. She only had one child in 1945, writer, Guy Johnson. Angelou died May 28, 2014 at eighty-six years old in her North Carolina home. The legacy of this powerful woman is lived on by Her son, Guy, and many friends and admirers. In my opinion, “Phenomenal Woman” is one of her greatest contributions to the literary world. It shows that you don’t have to be a certain ‘type’ of woman to be amazing. Angelou manages to convey this message by pinpointing the things that she found made her unique and desirable. She found out just how phenomenal she was years after she had thought of herself as ugly and incapable of being loved. Her life was not aways glamorous and phenomenal, and seeing the way she was able to work through it and realize how amazing she is an amazing thing we don’t see very

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