Maya Angelou has made history once again by becoming the first black woman to have her likeness depicted on a US Coin.
On Monday, the U.S Treasury Mint announced that the poet and author would feature in the first series of circulating coins dedicated to celebrating American women and their contributions to American history.
Unveiling the coin, the Mint said, “Maya Angelou used words to inspire and uplift”, adding, her images on the coin were “inspired by her poetry and symbolic of the way she lived.”
Maya was multi-talented and certainly wore several hats throughout her life. Before embarking on a career as an author, she worked as a waitress, cook, performer, playwright, editor and film director.
Here are some inspiring facts about the author who used her talents and power of words to uplift and defend the rights of women and youths, leaving a lasting legacy that we still draw inspiration from to date.
She was the first black female streetcar conductor
Maya briefly dropped out of High School to become a streetcar conductor, making her the first black woman to achieve this fit. During a previous interview with her friend Oprah Winfrey, Maya revealed she was inspired by her love for their uniforms. “I saw women on the streetcars with their little changer belts. They had caps with bibs on them and form-fitting jackets. I loved their uniforms. I said that is the job I want.”
She turned to write to deal with childhood trauma
At 7 years old, her mother’s boyfriend raped Maya. She reported the incident to her family and he was taken to court. During the court proceedings, Maya testified against him, leading to his conviction. He spent one day in jail. He was murdered four days after his release. Maya blamed herself for his death saying her voice had killed him. She thereafter went mute for 5 years, turning to Literature to deal with the trauma.
“I thought, my voice killed him,” she later wrote of her attacker. “I killed that man because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again because my voice would kill anyone.”
For her writings, Maya drew inspiration from her background and childhood. Her first book I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, published in 1969, addresses her childhood, challenges she went through like rape, trauma and racism and how she was able to overcome them. The book was an instant bestseller.
Writing didn’t come easy for her, she worked hard to perfect her craft
Despite being one of the most celebrated authors of all time, Maya says writing did not come so easy for her. She invested a lot of time and effort to perfect her craft. She opened up about this in a 1990 Paris Review interview saying, “I try to pull the language in to such a sharpness that it jumps off the page. It must look easy, but it takes me forever to get it to look so easy. Of course, there are those critics, New York critics as a rule, who say, Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course, it’s good but then she’s a natural writer. Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.”
She was the first black poet to present at a Presidential inauguration
In 1993 Maya made history as the first black poet and only the second poet to recite work at a Presidential Inauguration after presenting her poem ‘On The Pulse of Morning’ at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration. The poem she had written for the special occasion won a 1994 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.
She was a writer of greeting cards
Angelou wrote words for a line of cards, bookends, and pillows for Hallmark despite disapproval from her publishing house. The editors at the publishing house argued this would dilute her brand. However, Maya defended her decision saying, “If I’m America’s poet or one of them, then I want to be in people’s hands … people who would never buy a book.”
Maya’s productivity hack; She wrote in hotel rooms
For years, Maya rented hotel rooms near her home to write. To avoid distractions, her ritual involved carrying a thermal flask of coffee, a thesaurus, dictionary and checking into the hotel in the morning where she would write by hand. She would thereafter check out in the afternoon and edit what she wrote in the evening.
