Stage Name Maya Angelou example essay topic

Marguerite Johnson, also known as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Bailey and Vivian Baxter, on April 4, 1928. She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. She is a critically acclaimed author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer and civil rights activist. At the age of three years old, Marguerite's parents divorced and sent her and her brother Bailey to live with their grandparents in Stamps, Arkansas. In 1936 she was traumatized by a sexual assault at the age of eight years old. From this traumatic Mar- -gue rite immersed herself into silence, refraining from speaking to anyone except her brother Bailey.

In 1939, she finally broke her silence and moved to San Francisco with her mother and Bailey. In 1945, her son Guy was born. Marguerite raised him as a single parent. Then in 1952 she married Tosh Angelos. In 1953 she adopted the stage name Maya Angelou (a nickname her brother Bailey called her in childhood, and Angelou was a corruption of her married name). Angelou later internationally toured in chorus with Everyman's Opera Company pro- -duction of Porgy and Bess.

She later began to write lyrics, which later turn into poetry and short stories. Her singing career begins to blossom and she moves to Brooklyn, New York to join the Harlem Writers Guild. At the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Angelou became the northern coordinator for SCL C, Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She moved to Africa with her son Guy and South African freedom fighter Vu sumi Make. She becomes an associate editor for Arab Observer in Cairo, Egypt. She served as assistant administrator at the school of Music and Drama, University of Ghana.

In 1968 her 10-show series, "Black, Blues, Black", was produced on San Francisco National Educational Television. She accepted a lifetime appointment in 1981 as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1993, Angelou wrote and delivered a poem, "On The Pulse of the Morning", at the inauguration for President Bill Clinton at his request. The first black woman director in Hollywood, Angelou has written, produced, directed, and starred in productions for stage, film, and television. In 1971, she wrote the original screenplay and musical score for the film Georgia, Georgia.

Maya Angelou was twice nominated for a Tony award for acting: once for her Broadway debut in Look Away (1973), and in 1977 for her performance in Roots. Maya Angelou's book titled, Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now, is conversational in tone and format. This book is made up of brief essays or sermonettes seem to form a spiritual autobiography of a spirited African American. One essay depicts her, as a single professional woman, challenging a group of black professional men in a bar, to accept her as the complex and driven being that she is, later realizing that she was and is unable to understand the men in her life.