Maya Angelou next speaker in 2009-10 Distinguished Speaker Series

Maya Angelou next speaker in 2009-10 Distinguished Speaker Series

Maya Angelou

University Park, Pa. – Maya Angelou, poet, historian, author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, is the fourth speaker in Penn State’s 2009-10 Student Programming Association Distinguished Speaker Series. Angelou will speak at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23, in Eisenhower Auditorium.

The event is free and open to the public but tickets are required for admittance. Tickets will be available for students -- two issued per student I.D. -- on Monday, March 15, and available to faculty, staff and the general public on Friday, March 19, based on availability.

Angelou has authored 12 best-selling books and numerous magazine articles and earned nominations for the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. She is the second poet in U.S. history to write and recite original work at a presidential inauguration, in 1993, at the request of President Bill Clinton. The following year her spoken-word album including the inaugural poem received a Grammy Award, the first of three she has received.

Angelou speaks French, Spanish, Italian and West African Fante. After studying modern dance with Martha Graham and performing modern and African dance, she lived for a year in Cairo and edited the English-language weekly Arab Observer. A year later she moved to Ghana, where she taught at the University of Ghana's School of Music and Drama and served as feature editor of The African Review. After returning to the United States Martin Luther King Jr. asked her to serve as the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In the film industry, Angelou has been a groundbreaker for black women, through script writing and directing. She has been nominated for two Emmy Awards, for her performance in “Roots,” a 1970s television miniseries, and for her screenplay titled “Georgia, Georgia,” for which she also composed the musical score.

She has been appointed to two presidential committees and in 2000 was awarded the congressional National Medal of Arts.

Tickets for Angelou's speech are available at the following locations and times:

Eisenhower Auditorium, corner of Shortlidge and Eisenhower roads, weekdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; HUB-Robeson Center, on Pollock Road, weekdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Bryce Jordan Center, corner of University Drive and Curtin Road, weekdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., all on the University Park campus; and the Penn State Downtown Theatre Center, 146 S. Allen St., State College, weekdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information about the Distinguished Speaker Series and the Student Programming Association, visit http://www.spa.psu.edu/dss.html.