Maya Angelou, in a word, ROCKS. We already knew this, but the 81-year-old writer proved it again last night by making me laugh, tear up, and feel so proud and so lucky to be a woman–all at once. “Women,” she said, “are rainbows in the clouds.”

My favorite part of the whole night, however, was when she rather feebly stood up to leave the stage (like I said, people, the woman is 81!), faced the audience, and, out of nowhere, defiantly and proudly motioned to her aging body and announced: “The span of my hips, the stride of my step, the curl of my lips. I’m a woman.”

And then left the stage. To roaring applause.

Amen, sistah.