Remembering a poet and an icon: Twitter mourns Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou, the renowned poet, novelist and actress, has died aged 86 sparking a wave of mourning on Twitter.

During her long career, Angelou published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years.

As well as her published work, Angelou was an activist in the fights for both women’s and black rights. Her efforts in all fields saw her given more than 50 awards throughout her career, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her book of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie, a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1973 play Look Away, and three Grammys for her spoken word albums.

Her final tweet, dated 23 May, read:

The outpouring of sympathy from Twitter was so great that it quickly became the world’s top trending topic.

Many of those remembering Angelou on Twitter chose to do so with quotes from her life:

Others felt that they couldn’t do justice to what the author had meant to them:

There’s no doubting however that Angelou was a massive influence on many people’s lives:

Image: Talbot Troy via Flickr.

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