Poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director Maya
Angelou was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then moved
to San Francisco. In addition to her bestselling
autobiographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged
Bird Sings, she has also written a cookbook,
Hallelujah! The Welcome Table; five poetry
collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker,
Why Don’t You Sing?; and the celebrated poems “On
the Pulse of Morning,” which she read at the
inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton,
and “Amazing Peace,” which she read at the lighting
of the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C., in
December 2005.