--- --- # 11 Facts You Might Not Know About Maya Angelou ## 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. 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