Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou worked as a calypso singer and dancer, toured Europe in Porgy and Bess, edited an English-language newspaper in Cairo and worked as a journalist in Ghana, and co-ordinated for Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference before I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) made her a famous author. She continued acting, directing and writing screenplays alongside poetry and memoirs for the rest of her life.