Man Johnson, the one and solely son of poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, has died at age 77 in California.
Information of his dying was first shared on the official social media account for Maya Angelou, writing that Johnson died peacefully Wednesday morning in his Oakland dwelling.
“Mr. GUY JOHNSON handed away peacefully at his dwelling this morning in Oakland, California,” the announcement learn. “Preparations might be made and introduced within the coming days. We ask that you simply respect the household’s privateness throughout this tough time. Thanks to your prayers and phrases of consolation and power.”
Johnson was born as Clyde Johnson in 1945, in San Francisco, California. He was a poet and creator who spent most of his faculty years and maturity overseas. After graduating faculty, he managed a bar on Spain’s Costa del Sol, ran a photo-safari service from London by way of Morocco and Algeria to the Spanish Sahara, and labored on the oil rigs in Kuwait. On the time of his dying, he took medical go away from the native authorities of Oakland, the place he was a supervisor for over twenty years.
The novelist has appeared in Essence journal and My Brother’s Keeper, an anthology of Black male poets. He has written a number of books, together with, Save the Stratford Canal! (1983), Standing on the Scratch Line: A Novel (2001), and Echoes of a Distant Summer season (2005).
His spouse and two kids survive him.
The information of Johnson’s passing comes after his mom, Angelou, turns into the primary Black girl on a U.S. quarter. On Valentine’s Day, Johnson shared with KRON that he was instrumental in the way in which his mom was portrayed.
“One of many causes I selected that picture is, first off, I understand how tough it’s to seize the precise essence and animus of a human being on a steel coin, and I believed that image with the chook behind her, the wings and her arms out gave some sense of the type that she had, the grace that she had,” he mentioned.
Relaxation in peace, Man!