5 interesting things you didn't know about the late Maya Angelou

Dr Maya Angelou lived a number of fascinatingly different lives — as a singer, storyteller, activist, poet and sex worker.

Today, to commemorate what would have been Angelou's 90th birthday, Google created a beautifully-animated Doodle. It's set to the soundtrack of one of her poems, I Rise, being read by some of the many people she inspired with her words including celebrities Alicia Keyes, Laverne Cox and Oprah Winfrey.

One of the most influential voices of our time, Angelou’s depictions of black lives, the human spirit and the strength of women in her work will forever be remembered and celebrated.

Here are five things you might not know about her:

1. SHE DRANK SHERRY WHILE SHE WROTE

Angelou had a very precise writing ritual. She would book a hotel room, strip the art from the walls and write 10-12 pages a day on a yellow legal pad with a bottle of sherry and a pack of cards for company. In the evening she would edit her work down to three to four pages, repeating this everyday until she was finished.

WATCH | Maya Angelou Google Doodle

2. SHE WAS MUTE FOR FIVE YEARS

Angelou spent five years in silence after her rapist was murdered by her uncle. She believed her voice was responsible for his death. Years later in times of stress Angelou would often retreat into mutism referring to it as “addictive”.

3. SHE WON THREE GRAMMY AWARDS

Angelou won a trio of Grammy Awards not for singing, but for her spoken word albums. She won her first Grammy for the poem On the Pulse of The Morning, which she wrote for Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. Her other wins were for the poem Phenomenal Woman and the audio book version of her autobiography, A Song Flung up to Heaven.

LISTEN | Maya Angelou recites her poem Phenomenal Woman 

4. SHE WORKED AS A SEX WORKER

For a brief period in her teens, Angelou worked as a sex worker to provide for her son. She chronicled this experience in her 1974 autobiography Gather Together in my Name.

5. SHE WAS IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH AN SA FREEDOM FIGHTER

Angelou began her relationship with civil rights activist Vusumzi Make in 1961. Together they moved to Cairo, separating soon afterwards in 1962.