Later Angelou studied dance and drama and went on to a career in theater. She appeared in Porgy and Bess, which gave performances in twenty-two countries. She also acted in several plays on and off Broadway, including Cabaret for Freedom, which she wrote with Godfrey Cambridge. During the early 1960s Angelou lived in Cairo, Egypt, where she was the associate editor of The Arab Observer. During this time she also contributed articles to The Ghanaian Times and was featured on the Ghanaian Broadcasting Corporation programming in Accra, Ghana.
During the mid-1960s she became assistant administrator of the School of Music and Drama at the University of Ghana. She was the feature editor of the African Review in Accra from 1964 to 1966.
After returning to the United States civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King requested she serve as northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Angelou also worked in television as a writer-producer for 20th Century-Fox. In addition She wrote, produced, and hosted the National educational television series Blacks! Blues! Black! She also costarred in the motion picture How to Make an American Quilt in 1995. Angelou made her first attempt at film directing with the feature length movie Down in the Delta (1998). The film told the story of a seventy-year-old woman and her personal journey.
Angelou later became a national figure and read her poem “On the Pulse of the Morning” at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. She was the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration. Angelou was invited by successive Presidents of the United States to serve in various capacities. President Ford appointed her to the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, and President Carter invited her to serve on the Presidential Commission for the International Year of the Woman. President Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1993.
President Barack Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to author and poet Maya Angelou in the East Room of the White House, February 15, 2011. In 2000, Angelou was honored with the Presidential Medal of the Arts; she received the Ford’s Theatre Lincoln Medal in 2008.
During the mid-1960s she became assistant administrator of the School of Music and Drama at the University of Ghana. She was the feature editor of the African Review in Accra from 1964 to 1966.
After returning to the United States civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King requested she serve as northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Angelou also worked in television as a writer-producer for 20th Century-Fox. In addition She wrote, produced, and hosted the National educational television series Blacks! Blues! Black! She also costarred in the motion picture How to Make an American Quilt in 1995. Angelou made her first attempt at film directing with the feature length movie Down in the Delta (1998). The film told the story of a seventy-year-old woman and her personal journey.
Angelou later became a national figure and read her poem “On the Pulse of the Morning” at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. She was the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration. Angelou was invited by successive Presidents of the United States to serve in various capacities. President Ford appointed her to the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission, and President Carter invited her to serve on the Presidential Commission for the International Year of the Woman. President Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1993.
President Barack Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to author and poet Maya Angelou in the East Room of the White House, February 15, 2011. In 2000, Angelou was honored with the Presidential Medal of the Arts; she received the Ford’s Theatre Lincoln Medal in 2008.