L E A R N I N G
T O
With a love for music, Maya Angelou
would sing calypso, dance in night
and supper clubs and eventually become known for her ability to write
lyrics and perform spoken word. Collaborating with Quincy Jones she
wrote lyrics for B.B. King in the film
For Love of Ivy, a Sidney Poitier film.
She would later become close friends
and work intimately with Valerie
Simpson and Nick Ashford to produce
an album titled Been Found, featuring
Ashford and Simpson’s vocals and
Maya Angelou’s spoken word and
released in 1996.Maya Angelou has
won three Grammys: Best Spoken
Word Album, Best Spoken Word.
In the late 1950’s Maya Angelou
joined the Harlem Writer’s Guild.
With the guidance of her friend, the
novelist James Baldwin, she began
work on the book that would become
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
Published in 1970, I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings received international acclaim made the bestseller list.
The book was also banned in many
schools during that time as Maya Angelou’s honesty about having been
sexually abused opened a subject
matter that had long been taboo in
the culture. Later, I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings would become a
course adoption at college campuses
around the world. With more than 30
bestselling titles, Maya Angelou has
written 36 books.
In 1954 and 1955, Dr. Angelou toured
Europe with a production of the opera
Porgy and Bess. She studied modern
dance with Martha Graham, danced
with Alvin Ailey on television variety
shows and, in 1957, recorded her first
album, Calypso Lady. In 1958, she
moved to New York, where she joined
the Harlem Writers Guild, acted in
the historic Off-Broadway production
of Jean Genet’s The Blacks and wrote
and performed Cabaret for Freedom.
5
F L Y
Songs an Album combining various
genre’s of music including hip-hop to
be released posthumously on November 4, 2014.
At the age of eight, while living with
her mother, Angelou was sexually
abused and raped by her mother's
boyfriend, a man named Freeman.
She told her brother, who told the
rest of their family. Freeman was
found guilty but was jailed for only
one day. Four days after his release,
he was murdered, probably by Angelou's uncles.[12] Angelou became
mute for almost five years,[13] believing, as she stated, "I thought, my
voice killed him; I killed that man,
"I wrote about my experiences
because I thought too many
people tell young folks, 'I never
did anything wrong. Who,
Moi? – never I. I have no skeletons in my closet. In fact, I
have no closet.”
or Non Musical Album 1993 for On
the Pulse of Morning, Grammy for
Best Spoken Word or Non Musical
Album, 1995 for Phenomenal Woman, Grammy for Best Spoken Word
Album, 2000 for A Song Flung up to
Heaven. Earlier this year Maya Angelou was working on Caged Bird
because I told his name. And then I
thought I would never speak again,
because my voice would kill anyone ..."[14] According to Marcia Ann
Gillespie and her colleagues, who
wrote a biography about Angelou, it
was during this period of silence
when Angelou developed her.