“Mr. GUY JOHNSON passed away peacefully at his home this morning in Oakland, California,” the announcement on Maya Angelou’s official page read. “Arrangements will be made and announced in the coming days. We ask that you respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time. Thank you for your prayers and words of comfort and strength.” Guy Johnson was the one and only son of poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou. He died at age 77 in California.

News of his death was first shared on the official social media account for Maya Angelou; writing that Johnson died peacefully Wednesday morning in his Oakland home.

Guy Johnson

Although he was not as well known as his prolific mother, Guy Johnson was also a poet and novelist.

According to his Bio by  Penguin Random House, Johnson; attended college in Egypt and after graduating, he managed a bar on Spain’s Costa del Sol; also ran a photo-safari service from London through Morocco and Algeria to the Spanish Sahara, and worked on the oil rigs in Kuwait.

In 1962, on a trip with his mother, Johnson broke his neck in a car accident in Ghana, leading to months of difficult recovery and a permanent injury that continued to impact his health for years afterwards.

When Johnson and his mother appeared together on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday on OWN in 2013, he said that he had no problem with his mother’s success.

“No, I didn’t,” he told Oprah on the episode. “I grew up in her light. Sometimes I wasn’t worthy of it, but it has always been an experience that expanded me.”

In 2019, Johnson teamed with producers David Michael Rich, and J. Todd Harris (Heathers, Doctor Zhivago) on a one-woman Broadway show titled; Phenomenal Woman: An Evening With Maya Angelou, based on Angelou’s life and work.

Most recently, Johnson played a significant role in choosing Angelou’s image for the U.S. quarter as part of the American Women Quarters Program. The quarter depicts Angelou with her arms outstretched and uplifted; behind her is a bird in flight and a rising sun.

 According to the Mint, the images are meant to symbolize the way she lived her life and are inspired by her poetry.

At the time of his passing, Johnson was working with Wake Forest University in North Carolina on an artist-in-residence program in his mother’s name. The school issued a statement after Johnson’s death was announced Thursday.

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This 27 year old, is Art And All That Is Art. Writer, Film and stage actor, Mental Health Lay counselor and show host.

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