Daily Updates with RF Rizwan Farrukh
Maya Angelou who rose from segregation, poverty and the severest of childhoods in order to become a force on screen, stage and the printed page has died at the age of 86.
A statement issued by Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina confirmed her death. This is where she had served as a professor of American Studies since 1982.
She was both tall and regal, with a voice that was majestic. She challenged all category and probability becoming one of the first black women to enjoy mainstream success as an author and thriving in virtually every artistic medium.
The young single mother, who performed at strip clubs to earn a living, later wrote and recited the most popular diplomatic opening poem in history.
She was a childhood victim of rape who wrote a million-selling memoir, supported Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X and the Rev Martin Luther King Jr and performed on stages around the world.
The singer, actress and dancer in the 1950s and 1960s broke through as an author in 1970 with ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, which became typical and occasionally censored reading. It was also the first multi-part autobiography that continued through the times.
