Essay

Nia Heath
Eng.-1301
Kelly Savage
Essay #2 September 4, 2010

Essay #2: Profile (Maya Angelou)

Marguerite Annie Johnson,”Maya Angelou” also know as “America’s Renaissance Woman” is now 80, and is a well-know pronounced writer. Maya Angelou is also an autobiographer, poet, playwright, director, producer, performance artist, and educator. Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri.
Just as any other individual in life, Maya has also encountered hardships while growing up during the time of enslavement of African-Americans. Maya’s parents divorced when Maya was only three years of age; she and her younger brother later moved into their grandmother’s home in Stamps, Arkansas. There she experienced racism, discrimination, and she also learned about her African-American heritage and traditions. “Maya” was not her government name, but one day her younger brother was reading a book about the Maya Indians and soon after the name “Maya” stuck. At the age of seven, while visiting her mother in Chicago, Maya was sexually molested by her mother’s boyfriend. Maya, scared to inform an adult of the incident later told her younger brother of the incident that had token place. She was later informed that an uncle had killed her attacker. Maya felt as if his deaf would not have occurred; if only she would’ve kept her mouth shout. Maya didn’t say a word for years, until she was 13 years of age. Maya and her younger brother rejoined their mother in San Francisco. Soon after Maya began to attend Mission High School and was awarded a scholarship to study dance and drama at San Francisco’s Labor School. She dropped out of school in her teens to become San Francisco's first African American female cable car conductor. She later returned to high school, but became pregnant in her senior year and graduated a few weeks before giving birth to her son, Guy. She left home at 16 and took on the difficult life of a single mother, supporting herself and her son by... [continues]

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