
Maya Angelou (1928-2014), the acclaimed poet, playwright, and memoirist, led an extraordinary life filled with numerous groundbreaking achievements. Her life story is both inspiring and humbling, as she experienced a wide range of roles before turning 40, including professional dancer, singer, lecturer, activist, and editor. As Gary Younge noted in the Guardian, her journey was nothing short of remarkable. Here are some lesser-known aspects of her incredible life.
1. She Once Worked as a Calypso Singer and Dancer
During her early years as a single mother, Angelou once worked as a stripper to make ends meet. A patron, who eventually became a close friend, informed her about an opportunity at San Francisco's popular nightclub, The Purple Onion. There, she developed a performance act combining calypso music and storytelling. In 1957, she appeared in the movie "Calypso Heatwave" and released an album titled "Miss Calypso," coinciding with the rise of calypso music's popularity in the U.S. during that era.

2. Her First Book Was Written on a Dare
Angelou's most famous work, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," chronicles her early life, though writing was never her initial career goal. By the late 1960s, she was producing a PBS television series. During a dinner with writer James Baldwin, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and his wife Judy, Angelou found herself competing to share her own stories. As she recounted in a Paris Review interview, the evening sparked a pivotal moment in her literary journey.
Impressed by her storytelling, Judy Feiffer suggested to Random House editor Bob Loomis that Angelou write an autobiography. Despite initially declining three times, Angelou eventually agreed after Loomis used a clever tactic suggested by James Baldwin. In the same interview, she explained, "He said, 'It's just as well that you don't attempt to write this book, because to write autobiography as literature is almost impossible.' I said, 'What are you talking about? I'll do it.'"
3. She Achieved Numerous Firsts
At just 16, Angelou became San Francisco's first black female cable car conductor. She also broke barriers as the first African-American woman to pen a nonfiction bestseller (1969's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"), have a screenplay produced (1972's "Georgia Georgia"), and direct a major motion picture (1998's "Down in the Delta").
4. She Wed Her Third Husband Three Times
Angelou's third marriage was to Paul du Feu, a Welsh carpenter, comic strip writer, and former husband of feminist Germaine Greer. (He had also posed nude with Greer for British Cosmopolitan's first centerfold.) In a 1975 interview with People magazine, Angelou shared, "He said that if I were British or he black, we'd just live together. But due to our cultural differences, he wanted a public commitment. We married... and loved the ceremony so much that we repeated it twice more." Sadly, their marriage ended in 1981, with Angelou acknowledging she could be challenging to live with.
5. She Had a Unique Connection with Coretta Scott King
Angelou's birthday fell on April 4, coinciding with the tragic assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. As the northern coordinator of King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Angelou was deeply affected by his death. For many years, she refrained from celebrating her birthday but made it a point to call Coretta Scott King, his widow, and send her flowers annually on that day.
6. Her Commemorative Stamp Included a Quote - NOT Hers
The 2015 postal stamp honoring Angelou featured the line, "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song," originally penned by poet Joan Walsh Anglund. While Angelou occasionally referenced this quote in interviews, she never claimed authorship. (The U.S. Postal Service acknowledged the oversight only after a newspaper highlighted the error post-release.) This wasn't the only instance of misattribution; at least two widely circulated poems on the internet have been incorrectly credited to her.
I once had the privilege of meeting Angelou in the 1980s. She was signing copies of her latest poetry collection, which had already sold out at the event. Nervously, I handed her my worn paperback of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," and she kindly autographed it without hesitation.