Happy Birthday, Maya Angelou!

Posted by Kelly on Apr 03, 2008 - 05:35 pm

Tomorrow is Wake Forest professor and, more notably, world-renowned poet Maya Angelou’s 80th birthday.  Oprah is throwing her a birthday bash, but it will be hard to top Angelou’s 70th birthday present from Oprah- a week-long Caribbean cruise for Angelou and 150 friends!  I don’t know how Oprah plans to outdo herself on that one, but I’m sure it will be spectacular.

And if you were wondering, Wake Forest did get a little shout out in the article.

Now, she adds, “I’m not a writer who teaches. I’m a teacher who writes. But I had to work at Wake Forest to know that.“

She describes the joy she finds in a classroom: “I see all those little faces and big eyes. Black and white. They look like sparrows in the nest. They look up, with their mouths wide open, and I try to drop in everything I know.“

She has no plans to retire. She teaches one course each semester at Wake Forest. (Currently it’s World Poetry and Drama Performance.) She composed a poem for the Summer Olympics, is working on a collection of essays, and hosts a weekly satellite radio show on the Oprah & Friends channel.

The article traces Angelou’s troubled upbringing and her eventual successes in life.  She truly is an inspiration, happy birthday!