Angelou will receive the Doctor of Letters
(Litt.D.). She will be appearing at Hope through the
Student Speaker Series organized by the college's Student
Congress, and will deliver her talk at 7 p.m. in Dimnent
Memorial Chapel.

Tickets for the event are sold out.

Angelou has written numerous best-selling books of
poetry and prose, including "I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings," "Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie,"
"Gather Together in My Name," "Phenomenal Woman," "Oh Pray
My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well," "Singin' and Swingin' and
Gettin' Merry Like Christmas," "And Still I Rise," "The
Heart of a Woman," "I Shall Not Be Moved," "Shaker, Why
Don't You Sing?," "The Complete Collected Poems of Maya
Angelou," "All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes," "Now
Sheba Sings the Song," "On The Pulse of Morning," "Wouldn't
Take Nothing For My Journey Now" and "A Brave and Startling
Truth."

She has written several books for children,
including "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" and "My Painted House,
My Friendly Chicken and Me." She has also contributed
articles to publications ranging from "Life," to
"Cosmopolitan," "Essence," "Harper's Bazaar" and "The New
York Times."

Angelou has received awards and honors in several
fields. Among others, she received the Chubb Fellowship
Award from Yale University in 1970; a National Book Award
nomination in 1970 for "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings"; a
Pulitzer Prize nomination in 1972 for "Just Give Me a Cool
Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie"; and a Tony Award nomination
in 1973 for her performance in the Broadway production of
"Look Away."

She has received two awards from "Ladies Home
Journal": one for Woman of the Year in Communications
(1976), the other for being one of the Top 100 Most
Influential Women (1983). She received the Matrix Award in
1983, and has received more than 30 honorary degrees from
schools nationwide. In 1981 she was appointed to a life-
time position as the first Reynolds Professor of American
Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, and in
1987 she was honored with the North Carolina Award in
Literature, the highest the state bestows. She received the
Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature in 1999, and was
named one of the top 100 writers of the 20th century by
"Writer's Digest."

In 1992, she was invited to compose and recite a
poem to celebrate President Clinton's Inauguration, and was
named Essence' Woman of the Year. In 1994, she was
presented with a Grammy Award for best spoken word album
("On the Pulse of the Morning"). In 1995, she wrote and
presented a poem to honor the 50th anniversary of the United
Nations, and in 1996 she was named UNICEF's National
Ambassador.

In 1959-60, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., she was the northern coordinator for the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference. She subsequently lived in
Cairo and Ghana. She became the first woman editor of
Cairo's "The Arab Observer," and English-language news
weekly, and in Ghana was a features editor with "The African
Review." She also joined the University of Ghana as a
teacher and assistant administrator at the School of Music
and Drama.

She was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the
Bicentennial Commission, and by President Jimmy Carter to
the National Commission on the Observance of International
Women's Year.

Her screenplay "Georgia, Georgia" was the first
original script by a black woman to be produced. Her film
"Sister, Sisters" became the first full-length effort of
20th Century Fox TV. She has worked on numerous musical
scores for films, and played a role in Universal Pictures'
"How to Make an American Quilt."

She has made hundreds of appearances on network
and local television talk shows, including a one-hour
interview with Bill Moyers on the PBS special, "Facing
Evil." She has appeared on programs such as "Sesame Street"
and "Touched by an Angel," and her autobiographical account
of her youth, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," was a
special for CBS in 1979. Angelou received an Emmy
nomination for her supporting role in the 1977 production of
"Roots," and the Golden Eagle Award for her PBS special
"Afro-American in the Arts."

Angelou's visit is being sponsored by the
college's Student Congress, and supported through other Hope
departments including the President's Office, the Women's
Studies program, the Office of Multicultural Life and the
Provost's Office.

The Student Speaker Series debuted with author
Alex Haley on Jan. 30, 1992. Others featured through the
years have included actor Danny Glover and actor/director
Felix Justice; comedian and talk show host Bertice Berry;
author James Malinchak; former principal Joe Clark,
inspiration for the film "Lean on Me"; and attorney Robert
F. Kennedy Jr. on environmental issues.

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