Maya Angelou Turns 80
March 27, 2008 – 12:42 pmPosted Under: random
In the dining room of her elegantly restored Harlem town house, beneath painted clouds on a light blue ceiling, Maya Angelou is asked how it feels to be turning 80.
“Exciting!” she says with a broad smile, then adds: “The body knows. The bones don’t let you forget.”
The woman who defies a simple label — Angelou has been a memoirist, poet, civil rights activist, actress, director, professor, singer and dancer — is getting an early birthday gift.
Two longtime friends and her niece, who is Angelou’s archivist, have collaborated on an illustrated book, Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration (Doubleday, $30), a tribute and scrapbook, that will be published Tuesday.
On her birthday, April 4, she’ll be treated to a party thrown by one of her best friends, Oprah Winfrey, who tends to think big. When Angelou turned 70, Winfrey hosted a week-long Caribbean cruise for 150 of Angelou’s friends.
Maya Angelou with Poet Langston Hughes in the late 50s
Read the rest of the USA Today article here.
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