In popular culture, the term cakewalk means anything that is effortless and easy.
But the word dates back to a pre-Civil War dance originally performed by enslaved people on plantations throughout the South. The children's book (Alfred A. Knopf/1988) celebrates the cakewalk tradition through the story of a young girl named Mirandy who is determined to catch the wind so that it can help her win her town's cakewalk for the first time. A musical adaptation of the book is now on stage at through November 16.
Host Frank Stasio talks to playwright and adapter Michael J. Bobbitt, choreographer LD Burris, and actors Kwamea Wilkerson and Janice Laurore.
Here's an archival video of a cakewalk from 1903:
