Maya Angelou, the poet, actress and prolific memoirist, whose most celebrated work, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” established her as a clear-eyed interpreter of the black experience, has died. She was 86.

Her death Wednesday in Winston-Salem, N.C., was announced by her son, Guy B. Johnson. He did not disclose the cause of death, but Angelou had been in poor health in recent years.

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