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Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines a Renaissance person as someone "who has wide
interests and is expert in several areas." By this measure, African-American poet, actor, dancer, singer,
and writer Maya Angelou surely was a Renaissance person. Calling her multitalented and remarkable is a
huge understatement. That's because Angelou's greatness encompasses more than just her many skills
and interests; it includes her courage and commitment to the cause of civil rights.?
Angelou experienced and accomplished remarkable things throughout her life. In her teens she won a
scholarship to study drama and dance. At age 14, she became San Francisco's first African-American
female streetcar conductor. In her twenties, she toured Europe in the cast of the American opera Porgy
and Bess. She studied dance in New York City with Martha Graham and Alvin Ailey, two of the most
famous dance company directors in the world. Angelou's world continued to expand geographically and
professionally. In the 1960s, she lived in Egypt, writing for a news magazine called The Arab Observer.
She later moved to Ghana, where she taught at the country's university and edited two national
publications.
Angelou's considerable accomplishments include mastery of seven languages, acting in and directing
movies, and writing a five-volume autobiography. She also wrote a Pulitzer Prize-nominated movie script
and numerous essays and volumes of poetry. In 1993, she composed and read a poem called "On the
Pulse of Morning" for President Bill Clinton's inauguration, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in
2000, and won three GRAMMY Awards.
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In themselves, Angelou's achievements are amazing, but they take on an even greater significance in
Tinht of her lifelong ayneriences ac an African American woman involved in the Civil Rights Movement