Civil rights activist, award-winning author, poet, singer and actress, we remember Marguerite Annie Johnson Angelou, known to her fans and followers as Maya Angelou. A poet and Nobel laureate won multitude of awards and honors. Maya was raised in rural Stamps, Arkansas by her grandmother and uncle during the depression. I Know Why the Cages Bird Sings is an 1969 memoir written by Maya Angelou which became the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman. Maya took all her tragedies and turned it into one of the most widely read memoirs of the past few decades.

It’s quite extraordinary that Maya could overcome being abused as a young child and still manage to graduate school two years ahead of schedule at the highest academic level. Since then Maya was the first colored streetcar operator in San Francisco and later on the poet laureate that people recognize to this day.

Maya was never afraid to speak her mind. Angelou defended the rights of women, young people and the ignored. “She has much to teach this generation and generations unborn about what it means to be an authentic person, and the power of the genuine.” said the Rev Jesse Jackson.

Opran Winfrey, has called Angelou a mentor, says that “Maya Angelou is not what she has done or written or spoken, it’s how she did it all. She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence, and a fiery, fierce grace and abounding love.”