What a full life! This morning while reading about Maya Angelou for a display, I was fascinated by all she had done, as well as written. She was raped at age 8, told her brother, and believed her uncles murdered the rapist. She did not speak for 5 years after this occurred, believing her words had caused the death. In her teens she studied dance and drama in San Francisco at the California Labor School (this was a school supported by trade unions). She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. This portion of her life is the book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
She supported herself and son by a wide variety of odd jobs, nightclub dancer, fry cook, waitress and around this time married a Greek sailor. (She was rather cagey about how many marriages she had – three is the guessed number – as she didn’t want to seem “frivolous.”) She then did some very legitimate stage work in the musical “House of Flowers” and as a featured dancer in “Porgy and Bess” and had a nightclub dance act with Alvin Ailey.
To wind up this amazing life: she was active in the Harlem Writers Guild, worked with Bayard Rustin and King, sang at the Apollo, married a South African, moved to Cairo where she edited a magazine, divorced, moved to Ghana where she worked at the U. of Ghana, returned to New York and was in a Broadway Play (one performance but she was nominated for a Tony!), appeared in the TV series, Roots, and several movies, married again, and then wrote memoirs and poetry. And released an album of songs, somewhere in there.
(Plus I remember her reading at Clinton’s inaugural ceremony and she had a really “big” voice. She was almost 6 ft. tall.)