UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 24, Page 1
March 14, 1996
Maya Angelou to speak at 1996 Commencement

     Dr. Maya Angelou, hailed as one of the great voices of
contemporary literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman, will
deliver the University of Delaware Commencement address on Saturday,
May 25, before members of the  graduating Class of 1996 and their
families and friends.
     "We are very pleased that Dr. Maya Angelou has accepted our
invitation to speak," Robert R. Davis, alumni and University
relations, said, in making the announcement. "Dr. Angelou was listed
among potential speakers that appeared in ads last fall in The Review,
and she was one of the choices selected most frequently from that list
by our graduating seniors.
     "With her wide range of interests and experiences, she has a
reputation as a moving speaker, combining as she does her insights on
the black experience with her thoughts on the human condition," Davis
said. "Dr. Angelou's remarks will be particularly welcome on a day
that celebrates academic achievements."
     The ceremony, which is free and open to the public, will begin at
9 a.m. in Delaware Stadium, rain or shine.
     A poet, educator, historian, author, actress, playwright, civil
rights activist, producer and director, Dr. Angelou continues to
travel the world making appearances on college campuses.
     She has written 10 bestsellers, including I Know Why the Caged
Bird Sings, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie, Gather
Together in My Name, And Still I Rise, The Heart of a Woman and All
God's Children Need Traveling Shoes.
     Born in St. Louis, Dr. Angelou spent her early childhood in
Stamps, Ark., and then her family moved to San Francisco. Interested
in a stage career, she studied drama and dance and, in 1952, received
a scholarship to study dance in New York. She then joined the 22-
country European tour of Porgy and Bess. Dr. Angelou met and married a
South African freedom fighter and went to live in Cairo and then
Ghana. In both countries, she continued her writing as a journalist.
She became the first woman editor of the only English-language news
weekly in the Middle East, and when she lived in Ghana, she was the
feature editor of The African Review (Accra). She also was a teacher
and assistant administrator at the School of Music and Drama at the
University of Ghana.
     In the 1960s, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr.
Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference. President Gerald Ford appointed her to the
Bicentennial Commission, and President Jimmy Carter named her to the
National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year.
President Bill Clinton selected her to write and deliver a poem at his
inauguration.
     In the film industry, she has directed, produced and written
scripts, including Georgia, Georgia, the first original script by a
black woman to be produced. Recently, she appeared in the films Poetic
Justice and How to Make an American Quilt.
     In television, she has made hundreds of appearances for both
network and local talk shows, and her autobiographical account of her
youth, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, was a two-hour special on CBS.
     Among her many awards are the Chubb Fellowship Award from Yale
University, nominations for a National Book Award, a Pulitzer Prize
and a Tony Award, being named one of Ladies Home Journal's "Top 100
Most Influential Women" in 1983; and more than 30 honorary doctoral
degrees. In 1981, she was appointed to a lifetime position as the
first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University
in North Carolina.