The first fact about Maya Angelou is that she was the first black woman to conduct a cable car. Maya Angelou was given a scholarship to study dance and acting at the California Labor School when she was a teenager, but she briefly left the program at age 15 to work as a cable car conductor in San Francisco. She told Oprah Winfrey that the reason she desired the job was because she had "seen women on the street cars with little little changing belts." They wore form-fitting jackets and headgear with bibs. I adored their attire. I remarked, "I want that job." She won it and held the job for the first time as a black woman.

She described how she went to Market Street Railway's main office at 58 Sutter Street to submit an application after seeing an advertisement for "motorettes and conductorettes" in the San Francisco Chronicle. She was correct when she said that the office of the nearly bankrupt company was "dingy and the decor drab" and that she questioned if she wanted to work for "such a poor-mouth-looking concern." She became determined nevertheless when they ignored her the first day. She went back every day for two weeks, encouraged by her mother, she claimed, until they eventually allowed her to complete an application.

Angelou gained entry to a touring company for Porgy and Bess when performers saw her singing in a club and inquired if she could dance. She passed up the opportunity to play the lead in a Broadway production of House of Flowers in order to join the company because it allowed her to travel all across Europe. With Porgy and Bess, Angelou traveled to countries like Italy, France, Egypt, Greece, Israel, and the former Yugoslavia, expanding her perspective beyond the 1950s' segregated United States.

In the end, Angelou's account does not celebrate moments of collective success in the service of the nation-predetermined state's goals, but rather in conversation with a complicated and frequently paradoxical transnational Americanism. The Porgy and Bess cast embraced the chance to travel the world and perform in prestigious settings to adoring audiences despite having the difficult task of somehow reflecting a figuratively and psychologically split body politic. The text by Maya Angelou serves as a tribute to a talented African American ensemble who redefined the purpose of their tour on their own terms while still receiving payment and praise for their cultural labor. In addition to providing an important record of black feminist modernist performance, her performances on the international stage and her tragic autobiographical tale also defamiliarize US racism and segregation at the turn of the century.

Marguerite encountered the pervasive racial prejudice in Stamps, which she would later depict in her writings. Except for a trip to St. Louis when she was 8 years old, she resided there until she was 14 years old. The visit turned out to be horrifying since Freeman, her mother's boyfriend, raped Marguerite. She told her brother about the incident, and he then alerted other family members. Freeman spent just one day in jail, but soon after his release, he was discovered dead, having likely been murdered by Marguerite's relatives, having been kicked in a lot behind a slaughterhouse.

Marguerite felt bad and stopped talking, with the exception of her devoted brother, believing that her voice was so strong that it may kill people. She remained silent and reclusive for almost five years till Mrs. Bertha Flowers, a teacher and family friend, helped her find her voice again through reading and dialogue. That's also the third fact about Maya Angelou Toplist want to share with you!

Angelou performed in a production of "Porgy and Bess" that toured Europe in 1954 and 1955. She trained in modern dance under Martha Graham, performed on television variety shows with Alvin Ailey, and produced her debut album, "Calypso Lady," in 1957. She relocated to New York in 1958, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, played in "Cabaret for Freedom" and appeared in the illustrious Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's "The Blacks." The Arab Observer, an English-language monthly, was edited by Angelou in Cairo, Egypt, where she relocated in 1960. The next year, she relocated to Ghana where she worked as a feature editor for "The African Review," a writer for "The Ghanaian Times," and a professor at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama.

During its run from 1960 to 1966, The Arab Observer was one of the very few English-language news sources in the Middle East. After coming to Cairo, Angelou obtained a position as an editor for the Observer after W.E.B. Du Bois's stepson David falsified her credentials. While traveling in Egypt, Angelou met and wed civil rights leader Vusumzi Make. She had never been a journalist before, but her position at the Observer threw her into the thick of reporting as she worked in a room full of males who had never previously collaborated with a woman.

Next one in the list of facts about Maya Angelou is that she took part in lots of films in different roles. It's still deliciously surprising to learn that Angelou was also a filmmaker, even if towards the end of her career there were very few art genres she hadn't engaged in (which is how she ended up with both a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize nomination and three Grammy victories). She debuted in 1957's "Calypso Heat Wave" as Can actress and singer before switching to screenwriting for the romantic drama Georgia, Georgia which is about an African American singer who falls in love while on tour in Stockholm, and finally to directing with 1998's Down in the Delta, starring Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes.

Although Angelou wrote several autobiographies, her first, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," published in 1969, is still perhaps the one that is most well-known. A number of friends, notably novelist James Baldwin, pushed Angelou to write a work of narrative literature, and the result is a great masterpiece. The story of trauma, rebirth, and progress was turned into a made-for-television movie by Angelou and was helmed by Fielder Cook; it debuted on CBS in 1979. With the 1982 television film "Sister, Sister," Angelou continued to write stories about powerful women. Three sisters who attempt to put aside their differences in order to move their family ahead after their father's passing are the subject of the film written by Angelou. For "Outstanding Television Move, Mini-Series, or Dramatic Special," the movie received an NAACP Image Award.

Prior to Malcolm X's murder, Angelou, a close friend of James Baldwin, had plans to assist him in founding the Organization of Afro-American Unity, a new civil rights organization. Alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., she coordinated events for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Dr. King urged Angelou to tour the nation to support the SCLC in the beginning of 1968, but she postponed it in order to organize her birthday celebration. Dr. King was killed in Memphis on April 4, 1968, the day before she turned 40. She fell into a severe depression after his passing.

The renowned author and civil rights activist remembered that day, when her 40th birthday celebration was tragically cut short, in a CBC interview with George Stroumboulopoulos soon before her passing. In preparation for her birthday party, Angelou said she was preparing dinner in her New York City residence when she received the devastating news from a friend. King had asked her to spend a month with him helping him gather money for his Poor People's March, but she had said it would have to wait until after her birthday celebration.

Maya claimed that for the next 30 years, she continued to honor King on April 4 by sending flowers to Coretta Scott King, the widow of the civil rights activist. “It is a great blessing to have lived in the time of Martin Luther King Jr., when forgiveness and generosity of spirit encouraged our citizenry to work for a better world for everybody”, she wrote of King in her posthumously published memoir, Rainbow in the Cloud.

Maya was a wonderful cook and published two cookbooks is the next interesting fact about Maya Angelou. She wrote two recipes later in life but is best renowned for her autobiographical works, especially her first book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). Firstly, praise the Lord! Over a hundred recipes are included in the 2007 book The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes, which also includes stories from her life. When Angelou was eighty-one and her focus had shifted more toward health, she wrote her second cookbook, Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart (2010). The book includes recipes for nourishing, time-tested recipes, intimate autobiographical sketches of how they were developed, as well as advice for portion control.

Angelou seemed to be capable of anything. She sang "Hallelujah!" With Great Food, All Day Long, she expressed her enduring joy of cooking for others while putting an emphasis on healthful courses. She used The Welcome Table to explore recipes that had special value for her. In the introduction to the later volume, Angelou stated, "I will be extremely glad if this book finds its way into the hands of strong, adventurous people, courageous enough to actually step into the kitchen and rattle pots and pans."

At the age of 72, Angelou wrote a series of two-sentence sayings for the well-known greeting card business that were printed on cards and serving utensils in 2000. She was well aware that she would draw flak for using a business endeavor to lower her status. Angelou has joined forces with the industry titan of greeting cards in a previously unimaginable alliance. She agreed to create a line of greeting cards and gifts after initially feeling that she was trivializing herself.

The Life Mosaic collection was created from the Hallmark product line. Everything from recipe books, picture frames, and treasure chests to bookends, bookmarks, and bookplates with inscriptions were featured. They served as literary art that could be used, gifted, and displayed, sort of like heirlooms from Angelou's poetic life. The partnership between Angelou and Hallmark was audacious and successful. It stood apart from Mahogany, Hallmark's original imprint, which was expanded in 1991 to year-round target African Americans. The memoir Life Mosaic made use of Angelou's distinctive brand of lyrical feeling, reliance on African-American oral traditions, skill as a memoirist, and focus on women. It respected her close connection to the general public.

To finish the list of facts about Maya Angelou, we will talk about her presentation in Bill Clinton's inarguation. The famous Robert Frost was the first poet to take part in the inauguration ceremony as President John F. Kennedy took the oath of office in 1961. The centuries-spanning epic "On the Pulse of Morning," which she penned for the occasion, was read aloud by Angelou at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993, making her the first poet to do so since Robert Frost. She won the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for her performance.

Change, inclusivity, accountability, and the President's and the people's roles in ensuring economic stability are among the poem's major topics. Critics have compared "On the Pulse of Morning" to Frost's inaugural poem and to Clinton's inauguration speech because of its symbols, allusions to current events, and personification of nature. Mixed assessments have been given to what has been referred to as Angelou's "autobiographical poem". Clinton's selection of Angelou as the inaugural poet and her "representation" of the American people and its president were welcomed in the popular press. According to critic Mary Jane Lupton, the poem "will be attributed" to Angelou's "ultimate greatness," and her "theatrical" delivery of it, using the abilities she developed as an actor and speaker, represented a return to the African-American oral tradition of speakers like Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. Despite complimenting Angelou's performance, the poem received generally unfavorable reviews from poetry critics.