Writer, Poet, Phenomenal Woman Maya Angelou Passed Away Today At 86 Years Old - A Phenomenal Woman Poem Recited By Roosevelt Island Resident

Image From Buzz Feed Via Scott Eells / Getty Images

Sad news. Maya Angelou died today. According to the NY Times:

Maya Angelou, the memoirist and poet whose landmark book of 1969, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” — which describes in lyrical, unsparing prose her childhood in the Jim Crow South — was among the first autobiographies by a 20th-century black woman to reach a wide general readership, died on Wednesday in her home. She was 86 and lived in Winston-Salem, N.C....

Click here for the entire NY Times article on Ms. Angelou and reaction from Twitter.

More on Ms Angelou from CNN.



Here's Roosevelt Islander Laila Amatullah reciting Maya Angelou poem Phenomenal Woman during March 26, 2014 meeting of the Roosevelt Island Women's Health Organization



in celebration of Women's History Month.

Rest in peace Ms. Angelou.