Maya Angelou is Black History Month Extravaganza speaker

1:14 p.m., Jan. 24, 2013--Renowned author, educator and civil rights activist Maya Angelou will be the featured speaker at the University of Delaware’s Black History Month Extravaganza on Friday, Feb. 22.

Details on the event will be forthcoming.

Events Stories

June 5: Blue Hen 5K

University of Delaware graduates planning to attend Alumni Weekend are encouraged to register for the annual Blue Hen 5K walk and run, which will be held Sunday morning, June 5.

June 6-9: Food and culture series

The 20th annual June Lecture Series at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UD in Wilmington will be held June 6-9. Titled 'June a la Carte,' this year's program focuses on great political documents, feminism, world politics and a Newark cuisine sampler.

• June 6-9: Food and culture series
• Through June 30: 'Saving White Clay Creek'
• July 22: WWE Heatwave Tour
• Through Sept. 16: Women of color in academia

The presentation is sponsored by UD’s Center for Black Culture.

Angelou, who has been described as a “global renaissance woman,” has had a wide-ranging career as a dancer, musician and journalist. As an activist, she worked alongside Malcolm X and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1970 she wrote the acclaimed book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and she went on to become a trailblazer in film and television. She was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her 1972 screenplay Georgia, Georgia. 

Angelou has served on two presidential committees, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000, the Lincoln Medal in 2008, and has received three Grammy Awards. President Bill Clinton requested that she compose a poem to read at his inauguration in 1993.

She has received more than 30 honorary degrees and is Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.

Photo by Dwight Carter