Today’s quote comes from Maya Angelou (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) who was an American poet, memoirist and civil rights activist. She is best known for her poetry and her series of seven autobiographies which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences; the first and most famous one being I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She is also known for her poem On the Pulse of Morning, which she recited at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993, making her the first poet to do so since Robert Frost at Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961.

Before becoming a writer she worked as a fry cook, prostitute & madam (she chronicled her experiences as a sex worker in her 1974 memoir, Gather Together in My Name), nightclub dancer and performer. She was active in the Civil Rights movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She was also the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Later she was an actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs, and played a supporting role in the mini-series Roots. In 1996 she directed the feature film Down in the Delta. If that isn’t a varied career I don’t know what is.

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