GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 17
cover story
Dr. MAYA ANGELOU
A phenomenal woman
FORWORD BY LORI BITTER
"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou is the poet laureate of my life. As an English major, I cherished the words of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- the words opening my heart and daring me to think I could do and be more. As I moved through life and she wrote about
having her son as a teenager, and her complicated relationship with her oft-missing mom, I felt understood.
Angelou was multi-dimensional, with a career as a singer, actor, screenwriter and director. A civil rights activist who was
friends with both Malcom X and Martin Luther King. She earned Tony and Emmy nominations, a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy
award. Angelou even authored cookbooks focused on health. But in interviews, her greatest accomplishments and influences
were her family - and that is the little-known side of Maya Angelou!
A child of divorce, Maya Angelou went to live with her father and was very close to her grandmother. On a visit
with her mother and her boyfriend, Angelou was raped by the boyfriend who was later murdered by her family members. She was so traumatized by the experience she was mute for nearly five years.
"
Maya Angelou is quoted as saying, "My mom was a terrible parent of young
children. And thank God-I thank God every time
I think of it-I was sent to my paternal grandmother."
"
As a teenage mother to her son, Guy Johnson, Maya Angelou worked a number of jobs to support them both,
including a stint as a cable car conductor in San Francisco. She has said of her son, who is also an author, he is her
"monument in the world."
It is her role of grandmother we have heard little about. In 1981, Angelou's only grandchild, Colin, was kidnapped
by his mother following a weekend visitation. This would lead her on a four-year search to bring him home. When her
son exhausted his resources, she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on private detectives and used her speaking
17 GRAND
Nov-Dec 2019
Continued on next page
https://www.facebook.com/GRANDmagazine/
https://www.twitter.com/grandMmagazine
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1413589
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019
Contents
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 1
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 2
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 3
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - Contents
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 5
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 6
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 7
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 8
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 9
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 10
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 11
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 12
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 13
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 14
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 15
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 16
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 17
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 18
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 19
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 20
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 21
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 22
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 23
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 24
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 25
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 26
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 27
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 28
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 29
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 30
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 31
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 32
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 33
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 34
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 35
GRAND Magazine - November/December 2019 - 36
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2024fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2024summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2024spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2024winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2023fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2023summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2023winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2022fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2022summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2022spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2022winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2021fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2021summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2021spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2021winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2020fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2020fall_v2
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2020summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2020spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/2020winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20191112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20190910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20190708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20190506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20190304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20190102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20181112_drm
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20181112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20180910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20180708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20180506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20180304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20180102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20171112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20170910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20170708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20170506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20170304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20170102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20161112_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20160910_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20160708_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20160506_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20160304_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20160102_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20151112_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20150910_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20150708_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20150506_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20150304_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20150102_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/201401112_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20140910_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20140708_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20140506_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20140304_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20140102_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20131112_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20130910_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20130708_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20130506_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20130304_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20130102_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20121112_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20120910_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20120708_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20120506_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20120304_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20120102_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20111112_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20110910_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20110708_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20110506_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20110304_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20110102_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20101112_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20100910_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20100708_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20100506_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20100304_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/201001_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/200912_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/200911_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/200910_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/200909_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/200908_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/200907_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/200906_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/200905_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20080910_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/200904_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/200903_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/200902_v3
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/grand/20081112_v6
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com