642px Maya Angelou in Baltimore 6dde8

Test Your Maya Angelou Knowledge With This Quiz

by BUST Magazine

 

When Maya Angelou died on May 28, 2014 at age 86, the world lost a poet, professor, performer, and polymath who brought a sense of dignity and possibility to everything she touched. Think you “know why the caged bird sings?” Then take the quiz!

1. Born in St. Louis, MO, on April 4, 1928, Maya’s birth name was _______.

  1. Anna Mae Bullock
  2. Diana Ernestine Earle
  3. Marguerite Ann Johnson
  4. Jamesetta Peaches Hawkins

2. When Maya was seven, her mother’s boyfriend raped her, and when she told relatives about it, he was subsequently murdered. In the aftermath of the violence, Maya stopped speaking for ___ years.

  1. 2
  2. 3
  3. 4
  4. 5

3. As a teenager, Maya became the first female African-American streetcar conductor in what city?

  1. San Francisco
  2. New York
  3. New Orleans
  4. Seattle

4. A prolific writer, Maya was best known for her series of seven autobiographies, beginning with 1969’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and ending with 2013’s _______.

  1. Gather Together in My Name
  2. Mom & Me & Mom
  3. The Heart of a Woman
  4. A Song Flung Up to Heaven

5. Complete the following Maya quote: “I want to write so well that a person is 30 or 40 pages in a book of mine before she realizes she’s ______.”

  1. reading
  2. thinking
  3. learning 
  4. changing

By Emily Rems
Top photo via Wikimedia Commons
This article originally appeared in the August/September 2014 print edition of BUST Magazine. Subscribe today!

Answer Key: 1.c, 2.d, 3.a., 4.b, 5.a

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