She No Longer Jitterbugs . . .

. . . but, Maya's still got rhythm.

For those among us fortunate enough to afford the travel or to live near Detroit, MI <*waves to BFF, poet Lenore Langs, in Windsor*>, Dr. Maya Angelou, under the auspices of the African American Family Magazine and the Ford Motor Company, will give both a talk on "life, grace and self-esteem" as well as a reading from her new work, Letter to My Daughter at the Max M. Fisher Music Centre 18 March.

Sorry? You're right. Dr. Angelou has no daughters; however, as The Detroit Free Press's Cassandra Spratling explains, "Angelou's new book isn't actually a letter to her daughter. In fact, she has only one child, a son. But she has mothered and mentored many women, including Oprah Winfrey."

In a wide-ranging interview Dr. Angelou grants Ms. Spratling, the living treasure opines that it "would behoove us all to learn some grace . . . Grace is not just posture. It really is civility and that's civil rights at the highest level. Civility, courtesy, well-chosen words, kindness, interest in other human beings, not just interest in oneself."

She should know, particularly given the horrific events of her childhood briefly recounted in this fine article that also, BTW, includes a couple of exquisite excerpts from the new inspirational work, one of which, from the chapter entitled "Keep the Faith," I share here for your poetic plaisir de la journée:

. . . Whenever I began to question whether God exists, I looked up to the sky and surely there, right there, between the sun and moon, stands my grandmother, singing a long meter hymn, a song somewhere between a moan and a lullaby and I know faith is the evidence of things unseen.

Amein.