Maya Angelou to be commemorated with stamp

The U.S. Postal Service will release a Forever Stamp in memory of celebrated poet Maya Angelou, who died last year.

“Maya Angelou inspired our nation through a life of advocacy and through her many contributions to the written and spoken word,” Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan said in a statement. 

{mosads}“Her wide-ranging achievements as a playwright, poet, memoirist, educator, and advocate for justice and equality enhanced our culture.”

Angelou is one of the most famous black writers in history. She recited a poem at President Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993 and received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2011. When she died in 2014, Obama called her “one of the brightest lights of our time.” 

“Over the course of her remarkable life, Maya was many things – an author, poet, civil rights activist, playwright, actress, director, composer, singer and dancer,” he said in a statement at the time. 

“But above all, she was a storyteller — and her greatest stories were true.”

Obama also recounted that his mother named his sister “Maya” after the poet.