Maya Angelou, born April 4, 1928 as Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, was raised in segregated rural Arkansas. She is a poet, historian, author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director. She comes from a broken home, was raped at the age of eight, and was an unwed mother at 16 years old. Throughout all these circumstances, she still managed to become San Francisco's first black woman conductor. She was also the first black woman to have an original screenplay produced in 1971, Georgia, Georgia. She has several volumes of poetry, and some of her music was recorded by B.B. King. She was also nominated for an Emmy Award for her acting in Roots and Georgia. She lectures throughout the U.S. and abroad and is Reynolds professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina since 1981. She has published ten best selling and numerous magazine articles earning her Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominations. At the request of President Clinton, she wrote and delivered a poem at his 1993 presidential inauguration.

     Dr. Angelou, who speaks French, Spanish, Italian, and West African Fanti, began her career in drama and dance. She married a South African freedom fighter and lived in Cairo, where she was editor of The Arab Observer, the only English-language news weekly in the Middle East. In Ghana, she was the feature editor of The African Review and taught at the University of Ghana. In the 1960's, she was the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She was also appointed to the Bicentennial Commission by President Gerald Ford, and the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year by Jimmy Carter.