Let's see---I've been to rock concerts, ballets, the opera, you name it...
tonight was special... An Evening With Dr. Maya Angelou.

What a remarkable woman.  77 years young with a gleam in her eye, a loving heart, a wise woman of the world, a sensitive spirit, an old soul with a young mind.....She is amazing. Truly amazing.  She read poetry - both hers and others.  Challenged us to read African American poetry from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The best???       She sang "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine"....and told the story of lights...the lights that we are to others who we don't even know, and the lights that have gone before us....paving the way for us, even when they had no idea who we would be, or our names.  She told about her family, and growing up the way she did...her years mute from trauma, her grandmother and her uncle Willie (who were her lights)...and asked that we all learn courage....and use it.  She does not tolerate racial prejudice in any form and was so refreshing and just absolutely wonderful.

She talked about the slaves who came here, the Irish potato famine ship residents, the pilgrims, the Chinese who built America's railroads, the indigenous people....all those who came to America to build a land of many faces, many colors, many religions and how they paved the path for us..those of us who they never would know. 

She spoke of courage --- how important it is to have courage and how we are not born with it.  We have to learn it little by little and practice it to get it stronger.