RESEARCH

Maya Angelou

Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, she is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Her list of achievements is arguably beyond compare in our time. From her staggering book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1970) she has gone on to have over 30 best selling titles and acquire more than 30 honorary degrees. She has received the presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008 and also received 3 Grammy Awards. She is currently Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.

Dr. Angelou also wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia. Her script, the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She has appeared extensively in television and films including the landmark television adaptation of Alex Haley's Roots (1977) and John Singleton's Poetic Justice (1993). In 1996, she directed her first feature film, Down in the Delta. In 2008, she composed poetry for and narrated the award-winning documentary The Black Candle, directed by M.K. Asante