Research Catalog

Title

Maya Angelou papers.

Author

Angelou, Maya

Publication

1927 - 2009, bulk 1961 - 2009.

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

200.83 linear feet (408 boxes)

Summary

• Maya Angelou (1928-2014) was one of the most renowned and celebrated voices in American literature. She was a poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, dancer, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. In the mid-fifties, Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera "Porgy and Bess". She studied modern dance with Martha Graham, danced with Alvin Ailey on television variety shows and, in 1957, recorded her first album, "Calypso Lady" In 1958, she moved to New York, where she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, acted in the historic Off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's "The Blacks" and wrote and performed"Cabaret for Freedom". She also worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), under Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership. In the early 1960s, she moved with her son to Africa, where she lived and worked for various news outlets, as a journalist, in Egypt and Ghana. Inspired by James Baldwin to write her story, Angelou published her first book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"(1969) to international acclaim and enormous popular success. Her published verse, non-fiction, and fiction include more than 30 bestselling titles, such as "Gather Together in My Name" (1974), "And Still I Rise" (1978), and "I Shall Not Be Moved" (1990). Among her accomplishments, Angelou wrote the screenplay and composed the score for the 1972 film "Georgia, Georgia". Her script, the first by an African American woman ever to be filmed, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She made numerous television and film appearances, in Alex Haley's "Roots" (1977) and John Singleton's "Poetic Justice" (1993), among others. The feature film, "Down in the Delta", was Angelou's directorial debut. Angelou composed and read her poem "On the Pulse of the Morning" at President William (Bill) Clinton's first inaugural ceremony in 1993. Angelou served on two presidential committees; was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008; and has received three Grammy Awards. Despite never attending college, she received over thirty honorary degrees from universities across the nationa. Angelou died in 2014, leaving a legacy of artistry for generations to come.
• The Maya Angelou papers consist of original manuscripts, computer generated typescripts, galleys, and proofs of published work such as "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", "Hallelujah the Welcome Table", "I Shall Not Be Moved", "A Song Flung Up to Heaven", "Heart of a Woman", and "All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes", among others, as well as manuscripts for unpublished work and dozens of poems. Additionally, there is personal and professional correspondence with such notable figures as James Baldwin, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Mari Evans, Rosa Guy, Coretta Scott King, Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach, Julian Mayfield, Malcolm X, and her editors, to name a few. Also significant are requests to read or perform her work at universities and other organizations, and material related to various organizations' boards and committees on which she participated. Additionally, there are office files; teaching material, such as syllabi and reading assignments; and materials pertaining to Angelou's Hallmark greeting card series. There are a large number of subject files on various individuals, organizations, geographic locations, publications, and schools. Lastly, there is a considerable amount of material about Angelou and includes newspaper clippings, magazine articles, reviews, and other printed material regarding her publications and appearances.

Subjects

• Angelou, Maya > Wouldn't take nothing for my journey now
• Angelou, Maya > I know why the caged bird sings
• screenplays
• Guy, Rosa
• Angelou, Maya > Heart of a woman
• African American actresses
• African American entertainers
• Angelou, Maya > Just give me a cool drink of water 'fore I diiie
• Manuscripts
• Mayfield, Julian, 1928-1984
• Baldwin, James, 1924-1987
• Angelou, Maya > Gather together in my name
• African Americans in the motion picture industry
• Angelou, Maya > Shaker, why don't you sing?
• Black author
• X, Malcolm, 1925-1965
• African American women poets > 20th century
• Angelou, Maya > Even the stars look lonesome
• African American women authors
• Memoirs
• Autobiography > African American authors
• Scripts (documents)
• Sanchez, Sonia, 1934-
• Angelou, Maya > Song flung up to heaven
• African American women motion picture producers and directors
• African American authors
• Letters
• African American poets
• Angelou, Maya > I shall not be moved
• Angelou, Maya > Swingin' and singin' and getting merry like Christmas
• Angelou, Maya > Oh pray my wings are gonna fit me well
• Angelou, Maya > All God's children need traveling shoes
• Walker, Alice, 1944-
• Evans, Mari, 1919-2017
• Poets, American > 20th century
• Poets, Black > United States
• Angelou, Maya > Hallelujah the welcome table
• Angelou, Maya > Cookbook
• African Americans in motion pictures

Genre/Form

• Letters.
• Manuscripts.
• Memoirs.
• Scripts (documents)
• screenplays.

Access (note)

• Fan mail is closed until 2030. Photographs and prints held by the Photographs and Prints Division are unavailable pending processing.

Source (note)

• Purchase, Maya Angelou Foundation, 2008.

Location of Other Archival Materials (note)

• Maya Angelou Film and Theater collection, Wake Forest University

Call Number

Sc MG 830

OCLC

1122796531

Author

Angelou, Maya, creator.

Title

Maya Angelou papers.

Production

1927 - 2009, bulk 1961 - 2009.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

sheet

Restricted Access

Fan mail is closed until 2030. Photographs and prints held by the Photographs and Prints Division are unavailable pending processing.

Location of Other Archival Materials

Maya Angelou Film and Theater collection, Wake Forest University

Materials Separated from the Resource: Transferred to the Art and Artifacts Division: Gavel and paperweight from President Clinton; gavel made from wood from Clinton's inaugural stand; "Colored" and "White" toilet signs; Pacific State Association Daughters of IBPOE of W sash; "Mammy" brand label; "Do Not Stand Idly By Save Darfur" green bracelet; "I Have a Dream" medal; Marvtastic Society pin; National Organization for Women pin; Christmas in Washington ornament; Horizon's Day '90 pin (with Angelou's photograph); "Still We Rise!" pin; Thurgood Marshall stamp pin. Transferred to the Moving Image and Recorded Sound (MIRS) Division: audio and moving image materials. For more information, please contact the division at schomburgaudiovisual@nypl.org or 212-491-2270. Transferred to the Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division: 3 books. Transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division: 1 paige box and 1 archival box of photographs, mostly of Angelou at various events and appearances (includes two albums from Hallmark events; 1 album from an event sponsored by Oprah Winfrey; various individual snapshots; postcard images from Stamps, Arkansas)

Source

Purchase, Maya Angelou Foundation, 2008.

Connect to:

Finding aid

Research Call Number

Sc MG 830