American writer and activist Maya Angelou was BOTD in 1928. Born in St Louis, Missouri, she had a turbulent childhood, marked by poverty and sexual abuse. She settled in San Francisco in her teens, becoming the city’s first Black female streetcar conductor, before giving birth to her first child. She also worked as a sex worker and managed a lesbian brothel, recounted later in her memoirs. In the 1950s, she joined a touring dance troupe, working with Alvin Ailey and later touring Europe in a production of the musical Porgy and Bess. Relocating to New York, she joined the Harlem Writers Guild, publishing her poetry and becoming involved with the civil rights movement, befriending Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and James Baldwin. She is best known for her series of memoirs, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969, a lyrical and sexually frank account of her childhood. Her screenplay for the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia became the first produced film written by a Black woman. She also wrote songs for Roberta Flack, as well as articles, short stories, documentaries and plays. An occasional actress, she appeared in the influential television series Roots and the film adaptation of Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved, and directed the feature film Down in the Delta. Her public persona was significantly boosted in the 1990s by regular appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and her recitation of a poem at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. A vocal supporter of LGBT rights, she addressed a 1996 gay rights rally with the words “I am gay. I am lesbian. I am black. I am white. I am Native American. I am Christian. I am Jew. I am Muslim”. Married and divorced twice, little is known about her intimate relationships. One of America’s most revered writers, she died in 2014, aged 86.