50 Fun Facts About Maya Angelou

What was Maya Angelou's birth name?

Her brother Bailey Jr. gave her the nickname 'Maya', from 'My' or 'Mya Sister'.

In which city was Angelou born in 1928?

Her father was a doorman and navy dietitian, her mother a nurse and card dealer.

Where did the nickname 'Maya' come from?

Bailey Jr. was a year older; the two were sent alone by train to Arkansas when she was three.

In which Arkansas town did Angelou grow up with her paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson?

Her grandmother's general store prospered even through the Depression thanks to 'wise and honest investments'.

For roughly how long did Angelou stop speaking after she was raped at the age of eight?

Her attacker was murdered days after his release, and she believed her voice had killed him.

Which teacher helped Angelou speak again, telling her 'You do not love poetry, not until you speak it'?

Flowers introduced her to Dickens, Shakespeare, Poe and Black women writers such as Frances Harper and Jessie Fauset.

At 16, Angelou became the first Black woman to hold which job in San Francisco?

She wanted it for the uniform; in 2014 transport officials gave her a lifetime achievement award for it.

How soon after finishing school did Angelou give birth to her son?

She was 17; the boy, Clyde, later changed his name to Guy Johnson.

Angelou's first husband, Tosh Angelos, whom she married in 1951, was of what nationality?

He was an electrician and former sailor; the interracial marriage drew condemnation and her mother's disapproval.

With which future dance legend did Angelou form the unsuccessful modern-dance duo 'Al and Rita'?

They performed at Black fraternal organisations around San Francisco; she later studied African dance with Pearl Primus in New York.

At which San Francisco nightclub did Angelou sing and dance to calypso and adopt her professional name?

'Maya Angelou' combined her nickname and a version of her married surname.

With which opera production did Angelou tour Europe in 1954-55?

She began learning the language of every country she visited and became proficient in several.

What was the title of Angelou's first album, recorded in 1957?

It was reissued on CD in 1996; she also appeared in the 1957 film Calypso Heat Wave.

Which organisation did Angelou join after moving to New York in 1959, where she was first published?

There she met John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Guy and Paule Marshall.

What benefit did Angelou and John Oliver Killens organise in 1960 for the SCLC?

She was then named the SCLC's Northern Coordinator.

Which role did Angelou play in the 1961 production of Jean Genet's The Blacks?

The cast included James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson and Louis Gossett.

In which city did Angelou work as associate editor of the English-language weekly The Arab Observer?

She had moved there with South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make, whom she never officially married.

In which African country did Angelou live from 1962 to 1965?

She stayed on in Accra after her son was seriously hurt in a car accident.

Angelou returned to the US in 1965 to help which leader build the Organization of Afro-American Unity?

They had become close friends in Accra; he was assassinated shortly after her return.

On what date was King assassinated, which Angelou's biographer calls 'a macabre twist of fate'?

He had asked her to organise a march; James Baldwin coaxed her out of the depression that followed.

Which Random House editor challenged Angelou to write her first autobiography and edited her for the rest of her career?

He dared her to write an autobiography that could be considered 'high art'; he retired in 2011.

In what year was I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings published?

It covers her life up to age 17 and brought her international acclaim.

How many autobiographies did Angelou publish in total?

The last came out in 2013 when she was 85.

Angelou's 1972 film Georgia, Georgia, the first produced screenplay by a Black woman, was filmed where?

She also wrote the soundtrack but had little other say in the filming.

For her role in which 1973 play was Angelou nominated for a Tony Award?

She called herself 'a reluctant actor'; she directed Moon on a Rainbow Shawl in London in 1988.

Angelou's second husband Paul du Feu, a Welsh carpenter, had previously been married to which writer?

They married in San Francisco in 1973 and divorced in 1981.

In which 1977 television mini-series did Angelou appear in a supporting role?

Around the same time she met a Baltimore TV anchor named Oprah Winfrey, who became a lifelong friend.

Which university gave Angelou a lifetime professorship in 1981, despite her having no bachelor's degree?

She was the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies and called herself 'a teacher who writes'.

Which poem did Angelou recite at Bill Clinton's first inauguration in 1993?

She was the first inaugural poet since 1961, and the recording won a Grammy.

Who was the last poet to recite at a presidential inauguration before Angelou in 1993?

Frost read at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961.

By how much did Random House's sales of Angelou's books rise in January 1993 compared with all of 1992?

The publisher had to reprint 400,000 copies of her books after the inaugural recitation.

Angelou's poem 'A Brave and Startling Truth' marked the 50th anniversary of what in 1995?

Critic Richard Long gave it that label.

Which feature film did Angelou direct in 1996, starring Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes?

It made her the first African American woman to direct a major motion picture.

With which R&B duo did Angelou collaborate on the 1996 album Been Found?

It gave her three of her only Billboard chart appearances.

For which company did Angelou create a line of greeting cards and household items in 2000?

To critics who called it too commercial she replied that it fitted her role as 'the people's poet'.

Whom did Angelou first endorse in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries?

After Clinton dropped out she backed Obama, whose sister is named after her.

To which Harlem institution did Angelou donate more than 340 boxes of papers in 2010?

They include the yellow legal pads on which she drafted Caged Bird.

What did Angelou say a paraphrased quote on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial made him look like?

She had been a consultant on the memorial; the paraphrase was eventually removed.

What was the title of Angelou's seventh and final autobiography, published in 2013?

It focuses on her relationship with her mother, Vivian Baxter.

Which items did Angelou keep with her in the hotel rooms where she wrote on legal pads?

Staff were told to strip the pictures from the walls; she wrote 10-12 pages a day and cut them to three or four.

How did Angelou describe her attitude to being paid for writing about her life?

She was answering critics of her use of personal detail.

Where did I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings rank on the ALA's most-challenged books list for 1990-2000?

Parents objected to its depictions of sexuality, violence and irreverence toward religion; it was sixth on the 2000-09 list.

Which of Angelou's poetry collections was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize?

She also won three Grammys for spoken-word albums.

Which honour did President Obama award Angelou in 2011?

She had received the Spingarn Medal in 1994 and the National Medal of Arts in 2000.

In 2022 Angelou became the first Black woman to appear on which US coin?

She was among the first women in the American Women quarters series.

How old was Angelou when she died in May 2014?

Her son said she wrote four books in her last ten years despite constant pain; Caged Bird went to No. 1 on Amazon the following week.

A 2008 DNA test showed 55 percent of Angelou's ancestry came from which region?

The other 45 percent traced to Central African peoples of the Congo-Angola region.

How many recipes were in Angelou's 2004 cookbook Hallelujah! The Welcome Table?

Many came from her grandmother and mother, alongside 28 vignettes; a weight-loss cookbook followed in 2010.

Which gossip website wrongly reported in 2009 that Maya Angelou had been hospitalised, sparking death rumours?

She was alive and well in her home state at the time.

Despite having no university degree, what honorific did she prefer non-family to use?

She had more than fifty honorary degrees to justify it.