--- title: Maya Angelou Facts You Might Not Know description: Fun Maya Angelou facts from her country music obsession to her love for Uggs. canonical: https://time.com/123110/11-facts-you-might-not-know-about-maya-angelou/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-28T16:15:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:44.022Z og:title: 11 Facts You Might Not Know About Maya Angelou og:description: She loved wearing Uggs, watched 'Law & Order', and listened to Carrie Underwood og:url: https://time.com/123110/11-facts-you-might-not-know-about-maya-angelou/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 11 Facts You Might Not Know About Maya Angelou twitter:description: She loved wearing Uggs, watched 'Law & Order', and listened to Carrie Underwood twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 11 Facts You Might Not Know About Maya Angelou > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=dd1bf97a-a39c-455f-be40-bb3c692a3efb&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Maya Angelou's Most Powerful Quotes in 2 Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): Maya Angelou's Most Powerful Quotes in 2 Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/kfMCnBPK.m3u8) (2:04)  _Published 2014-05-30. A collection of the poet and author's most memorable speeches, poems and interviews_  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 28, 2014 4:15 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 28, 2014 4:15 PM UTC _Maya Angelou, renowned American poet and author of_ I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, _has_[ _died at 86_](http://time.com/123036/maya-angelou-a-hymn-to-human-endurance/)_. Here, NewsFeed rounds up some fun facts you maybe didn’t know about the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Arts._ • She **wrote Hallmark greetings**: Her Random House editor disapproved of her decision to lend her words to a line of cards, bookends, and pillows, arguing it was too commercial. But as she [told _USA Today_](http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/2002/2002-01-10-maya-angelou-full.htm), “If I’m America’s poet, or one of them, then I want to be in people’s hands…people who would never buy a book.” • She says at 16, she was the **first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco.** “I loved the uniforms,” she [told Oprah Winfrey](http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Maya-Angelou-Interviewed-by-Oprah-in-2013). • She [**drank sherry while she wrote**](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/growing-up-maya-angelou-79582387/?no-ist)**.** • Her **favorite clothing item:** [**Uggs**](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/10/maya-angelou-how-i-write.html). • She **watched** [**_Law & Order_**](http://parade.condenast.com/31341/erinhill/31-maya-angelou-activism-country-music/)_._ • A **country music lover**, she listened to Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Montgomery Gentry and Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland. “I’ve been seriously affected by the breakup of Brooks & Dunn,” [she told ](http://parade.condenast.com/31341/erinhill/31-maya-angelou-activism-country-music/)[_Parade_](http://parade.condenast.com/31341/erinhill/31-maya-angelou-activism-country-music/)_._ “They broke up after 20 years and I’ve been seriously offended by that!” • She **wrote cookbooks:** The author of _Great Food, All Day Long_ and _Hallelujah! The Welcome Table,_ she believed people won’t overeat if they eat what they want when they feel like it, such as “fried rice for breakfast,” [she told _The Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/nov/02/maya-angelou-no-for-apologies-cookbook). • She was a **guest star on** **_Sesame Street_**. Watch a pink puppet character grab her nose while she plays a name game using only words that begin with the letter “N.” • She was **“disappointed” that one of her poems was in an explicit rap** song [by Common](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/maya-angelou-says-shes-disappointed-with-common-after-collaboration/?%5Fphp=true&%5Ftype=blogs&%5Fr=0). Another fun fact: **Kanye West** likes to compare himself to Maya Angelou, arguing that they are both [“true poets.”](http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20334348,00.html) • In the 50s, she **danced in** **_Porgy and Bess,_** a nationwide tour of the George Gershwin opera about American poverty and racism that the U.S. Department of State sponsored. She was singing at nightclubs when she got the role, she [told _NPR._](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125457527) • She was **friends with Nelson Mandela**, and they first met while she was a journalist in Cairo in 1962\. Shortly after his death in Dec. 2013, she recited a poem in memory of the former South African president in a video that has racked up more than 1 million views on the YouTube channel for the U.S. Department of State. ## Transcript I am grateful, to have been loved. And to be loved now. And to be able to love. Because that liberates. Love liberates. Here on the pulse of this new day, you may have the grace to look up and out and into your sister's eye, and into your brothers' face your country and say simply, very simply, with hope, good morning. I know what the cage bids feel for me. When the sun is bright, on the upland slopes when the wind blows soft through the springing grass and the river flows like a sheet of glass. I say it's in the reach of my arms. The span of my hips. The stride of my step. The curl of my lips. I'm a woman, phenomenally. People have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. Every one of us needs to say to our children, children, this is your world. Come, come out, stand out, earn it. And we have a chance to be rainbows in their clouds. It amazing. The power we have, each of us, young, middle age, or like me upper middle age. [ LAUGH ] I don't know how much longer I will be around, or how much longer. I want to write about, people I've known and times I've lived and things I've done. But if there is time, I'll probably be writing when the Lord says, Maya, Maya, it's time. I'd rather be writing a poem or trying to write some music, or an autobiography. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/123110/11-facts-you-might-not-know-about-maya-angelou/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/123110/11-facts-you-might-not-know-about-maya-angelou/"},"headline":"11 Facts You Might Not Know About Maya Angelou","datePublished":"2014-05-28T16:15:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:44.022Z","description":"She loved wearing Uggs, watched 'Law & Order', and listened to Carrie Underwood","url":"https://time.com/123110/11-facts-you-might-not-know-about-maya-angelou/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Appreciation"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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