Always looking up,

her words uplifted our souls,

sweet inspiration.

Image from Twitter: @DrMayaAngelou

10 Fun Facts About Maya Angelou:

Born in St. Louis, Mississippi as Marguerite Ann Johnson.
Maya Angelou American poet, storyteller, activist, singer, dancer, composer, and autobiographer.
At seven-years-old, she was raped by her mother's boyfriend, which turned her into a mute after her uncles murdered him. She remained mute for 5 years, but developed her language through reading books by Black authors and poetry. At 12-years-old, an African American author by the name of Mrs. Flowers encouraged her to speak again and inspired Maya's love for poetry.
In the West Coast and Hawaiian nightclubs, she sang during the late 1950s.
She worked with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X during the Civil Rights Movement as an activist.
One of her poems published in 1971, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, was written about her stance against the Vietnam War and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1972.
During her career in film and television, she produced a screenplay called Georgia, Georgia making her the first Black woman to have one.
She served on two Presidential Committees for Gerald Ford in 1975 and Jimmy Carter in 1977.
During the '90s, Maya Angelou wrote several children's books including Life Doesn't Frighten Me in 1993.
She was awarded twice at the White House by President Bill Clinton receiving the National Medal of Arts and President Barack Obama the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

On January 20, 1993, she read her poem, On the Pulse of Morning, at the Inauguration.

Raw: Maya Angelou's Poem from Clinton's 1993 Inauguration

Her Twitter Page: @DrMayaAngelou

"Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise." #MayaAngelou pic.twitter.com/fo8IV5ovmp
— Maya Angelou (@DrMayaAngelou) March 20, 2022

Maya Angelou Receives Arts Humanities Award from

President Clinton 2000

Maya Angelou Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

A Writing Piece She's Authored

Caged Bird

BY MAYA ANGELOU

A free bird leaps

on the back of the wind

and floats downstream

till the current ends

and dips his wing

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied