Maya Angelou

Great Lives

BBC

History, Documentary, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.2 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in 1928. She was a mother, writer, dancer, director, performer, friend of presidents, and author of seven volumes of memoir. The very first - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - returned to the top of the best-seller lists when she died in 2014. So why were people fascinated by her life? Nominating her is Bristol University's recently appointed professor of slavery, Olivette Otele. "I l love her, I really do." She's joined by Patricia Cumper who has adapted many of Maya Angelou's books for radio. The presenter is Matthew Parris. The producer in Bristol is Miles Warde

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.2	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really.
0:13.0	Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,
0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
0:22.0	But you know I also know that comedy is really
0:24.4	subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer
0:29.6	from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you
0:36.2	fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds.
0:41.6	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:45.0	Today we're discussing Meyer Angelou, the great African American writer,
0:50.0	born Marguerite Johnson in 1928.
0:53.2	Her seven volumes of memoirs beginning with
0:56.4	I Know Why the Caged Bird sings
0:58.7	introduced millions of readers to an incredible life.
1:02.2	Here she is at the Hay Festival some three decades ago.
1:07.0	I grew up in a small town in Arkansas, much smaller than this stage.
1:19.0	I was sent there when I was three years old,
1:22.0	and I was sent to my paternal grandmother and her other son.
1:27.0	Mama owned the only Black Owned store in the town and she was already getting old when I arrived and my
1:36.4	uncle her baby son had been crippled his whole right side was paralyzed.
1:42.7	Mama always said, you know, if he hadn't fallen off that porch.
	...

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