![]() She became an administrator at the University of Ghana, and was active in the African-American expatriate community. Angelou remained in Accra for his recovery and ended up staying there until 1965. In 1962, her relationship with Make ended, and she and Guy moved to Accra, Ghana, so he could attend college, but he was seriously injured in an automobile accident. She and her son Guy moved with Make to Cairo, where Angelou worked as an associate editor at the weekly English-language newspaper The Arab Observer. Also in 1961, she met South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make they never officially married. In 1961, Angelou performed in Jean Genet's play The Blacks (playing the part of the Queen), along with Abbey Lincoln, Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, Louis Gossett, Godfrey Cambridge, and Cicely Tyson. She had joined the crowd cheering for Fidel Castro when he first entered the Hotel Theresa in Harlem New York during United Nations 15th General Assembly on September 19, 1960. Angelou also began her pro-Castro and anti-apartheid activism during this time. Hagen, her contributions to civil rights as a fundraiser and SCLC organizer were successful and "eminently effective". and hearing him speak, she and Killens organized "the legendary" Cabaret for Freedom to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and she was named SCLC's Northern Coordinator. In 1960, after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. She joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she met several major African-American authors, including John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Guy, Paule Marshall, and Julian Mayfield, and was published for the first time. ![]() She appeared in an off-Broadway review that inspired the 1957 film Calypso Heat Wave, in which Angelou sang and performed her own compositions.Īngelou met novelist John Oliver Killens in 1959 and, at his urging, moved to New York to concentrate on her writing career. In 1957, riding on the popularity of calypso, Angelou recorded her first album, Miss Calypso, which was reissued as a CD in 1996. She began her practice of learning the language of every country she visited, and in a few years she gained proficiency in several languages. During 19, Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. It was a "distinctive name" that set her apart and captured the feel of her calypso dance performances. Up to that point, she went by the name of "Marguerite Johnson", or "Rita", but at the strong suggestion of her managers and supporters at The Purple Onion, she changed her professional name to " Maya Angelou" (her nickname and former married surname). Angelou, her new husband, and her son moved to New York City so she could study African dance with Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus, but they returned to San Francisco a year later.Īfter Angelou's marriage ended in 1954, she danced professionally in clubs around San Francisco, including the nightclub The Purple Onion, where she sang and danced to calypso music. Ailey and Angelou formed a dance team, calling themselves "Al and Rita", and performed modern dance at fraternal Black organizations throughout San Francisco but never became successful. She took modern dance classes during this time, and met dancers and choreographers Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford. In 1951, Angelou married Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician, former sailor, and aspiring musician, despite the condemnation of interracial relationships at the time and the disapproval of her mother. ![]() Home Maya Angelou: Poems Wikipedia: Career
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