10 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present
and of a series of relationships with men she describes in retrospect as “danger-
ous.” She also describes low-end jobs as a cook, a dancer, and for one week, as
a prostitute. Angelou’s third volume, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like
Christmas (1976), reflects her climb out of the spiraling descent of unhealthy
relationships and choices depicted in the previous volume. Attempting to claim
middle-class respectability for her son, she married former sailor Tosh Angelos
in 1952. Although the marriage ended in divorce, she kept a variant of his sur-
name as her own, combining it with Maya, her brother’s childhood nickname for
her. Angelou balances optimism and a sense of worry as she addresses the split
between work and family life experienced by many women. While touring with
the cast of Porgy and Bess in Europe, she regained a positive sense of self; however,
guilt over leaving Guy to go on tour led again to depression.
The Heart of a Woman (1981), Angelou’s follow-up, chronicles her involvement
in the Civil Rights movement and growth as a writer. After moving to Brooklyn, she
joined the Harlem Writer’s Guild, where fellow member James Baldwin encouraged
her to write what would become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. After meeting
Martin Luther King Jr., she became the northern coordinator of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, a position she left to travel with South African
activist Vusumzi Make. With him and her son, Angelou moved to Egypt, where
she became editor of the English-language Arab Observer. When her relationship
with Make ended, she decided to stay in Africa, feeling it offered her a sense of
home she had never felt in the United States. All God’s Children Need Travelin’ Shoes
(1986) chronicles her life in Ghana, where she encountered other African American
expatriates and served as an administrator at the University of Ghana; the book also
recounts her distress as nineteen-year-old Guy seeks independence from his mother.
A Song Flung up to Heaven (2002) describes the personal grief she experienced
following the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X (she had
worked with both of them) and the solace she finds in writing.
Angelou lives up to her website’s description of her as a “Global Renaissance
Woman,” in the success she has found in other areas of the arts. Her poetry has
been collected in Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie (1971), Oh Pray
My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975), Still I Rise (1978), Shaker, Why Don’t
You Sing? (1983), and I Shall Not Be Moved (1990). Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My
Journey Now (1993) and Letter to My Daughter (2008) are other works of prose,
and My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me (1994) is a children’s book.
She has also written for television, most notably, Black, Blues, Black (1968), a
series for PBS; a teleplay of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1979); and Sister,
Sister (1982). She wrote the screenplays for Georgia, Georgia (1972) and Down
on the Delta (1997), which she directed. As an actress she has appeared in Roots
(1977), for which she earned an Emmy nomination, and Poetic Justice (1993). In
1993 Angelou read her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at the inauguration of
President Bill Clinton; it was commissioned for the occasion. Angelou has been
awarded the Presidential Medal for the Arts (2000), the Lincoln Medal (2008),
and more than thirty honorary degrees for her achievements. Dr. Angelou, as she
likes to be called, is the Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest
University in North Carolina.