The character arc of Maya Angelou
Born 4 April 1928 in St. Louis. Died 28 May 2014 in Winston-Salem. Between the two sit five years of near silence in childhood, a streetcar conductor's job won at sixteen by refusing to stop asking, years on stage and in the civil rights movement, and the memoir that has never gone out of print. The line below draws that whole life in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Maya Angelou?
Five silent years became a voice for millions.
After a childhood wound at eight, she stopped speaking to almost everyone for nearly five years. She spent them reading and listening in Stamps, Arkansas, until a teacher, Mrs Flowers, read her back into words aloud. She later said that in those years she memorised the sound of the language she would spend her life using.
The life that followed refused to pick one lane. She was San Francisco's first Black woman streetcar conductor at sixteen, a calypso singer, a touring cast member of Porgy and Bess, a newspaper editor in Cairo and Accra, and the northern coordinator for Dr King's SCLC. When Dr King was killed on her fortieth birthday, it was James Baldwin who pulled her out of grief and toward a book.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published in 1969 and has never gone out of print. She wrote six more volumes of the life, read at a presidential inauguration, and spent decades meeting readers who told her the book was their story too. Her line is worth reading for the shape of it: the deepest silence at the start, and a voice at the end that carried further than almost any other.
The moments
Maya Angelou's timeline.
The 1930s
Went almost silent
Setback, and it changed everything. After a childhood wound at eight, she stopped speaking to nearly everyone for close to five years.
The 1940s
Read back into words
Milestone, and it changed her direction. A teacher, Mrs Flowers, lent her books and asked to hear them aloud. The voice came back.
Won the streetcar job
Milestone. San Francisco's first Black woman streetcar conductor, at sixteen, because she refused to stop asking.
Her son Guy was born
Everyday. She raised him herself, through every job the next decade held.
The 1950s
Toured with Porgy and Bess
Milestone. Twenty two countries with the State Department tour, singing and dancing.
Recorded Miss Calypso
Everyday. A calypso album, a nightclub act, and a stage name that stuck: Maya Angelou.
The 1960s
Coordinated for Dr King
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, raising money from New York.
Edited newspapers in Africa
Everyday. The Arab Observer in Cairo, then the African Review in Accra, with Guy at university in Ghana.
Dr King fell on her birthday
Setback, and it changed her direction. Her fortieth. For years afterwards she marked the day quietly. James Baldwin pulled her toward a book.
Write the wound, or keep it closed
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: write it all down, taken, or leave the past closed. She spent the rest of her life meeting readers who told her it was their story too.
Caged Bird was published
Milestone, and it changed everything. The memoir stayed on the bestseller list two years and has never gone out of print.
The 1970s
And Still I Rise
Milestone. The collection whose title poem became a standard for every hard room since.
The 1980s
A lifetime chair at Wake Forest
Milestone. The Reynolds Professorship of American Studies, held for the rest of her life.
The 1990s
Read at the inauguration
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The first inaugural poet in three decades, heard by millions in one morning.
The 2010s
The Medal of Freedom
Milestone. The country's highest civilian honour, for the whole shelf of work.
The line ends 28 May 2014, in Winston-Salem. What it set moving has not ended: Caged Bird has never gone out of print, and Still I Rise keeps arriving exactly when a reader's own line needs it.
Your turn
Every story draws a unique line.
Hers took eighty six years and began in silence. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about three minutes.
Sources
- Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969, and the six volumes that followed.
- Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise, 1978.
- The inauguration record of 20 January 1993.
- The Wake Forest University appointment record, 1981.
- The White House Medal of Freedom record, 15 February 2011.