Contact: Anne Lombard, director of student activities, (740) 593-4025

ATHENS, Ohio (April 20, 2000) -- Author, poet, playwright and civil-rights activist Maya Angelou will speak at 8 p.m. May 5 in Ohio Universityís Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. The Friday evening lecture, titled "An Evening With Maya Angelou," coincides with Moms Weekend.

Born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Angelou was raised in a segregated area of Arkansas. She has written several volumes of poetry as well as a book, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." An account of her youth and the target of many censorship attacks, the book describes the trauma she experienced as a child rape victim, the violent death of her attacker and her subsequent refusal to talk for several years.

In 1971, Angelou became the first black woman to have an original screenplay produced, the film titled, "Georgia, Georgia." She also was nominated for an Emmy Award for her acting in "Roots." In 1993, at the request of President Clinton, Angelou wrote and delivered "On the Pulse of the Morning: The Inaugural Poem" at his first presidential inauguration. No poet had taken part in a presidential inauguration since 1961, when Robert Frost read his work at the ceremony for John F. Kennedy.

Tickets, priced at $8 for students with an Ohio University ID and $10 for others, are on sale between noon and 5 p.m. weekdays at the Memorial Auditorium ticket office. Credit card orders can be placed by calling (740) 593-1780.