February
8, 2002
Poet
Nikki Giovanni to Deliver Black History Month Keynote Lecture
February 14
The magazine Essence has described her as "one of
the most searing voices of the 1960s Black Power Movement."
Her poetry has been described as intimate, edgy, and unapologetic,
and she has long been known as the "princess of black poetry."
Twenty years before the appearance of rap music, she made innovative
recordings of her poems backed by some of the nation's most well-known
gospel choirs. Writer Gloria Naylor has called her "one of
our national treasures." Publications as diverse as Mademoiselle,
Ladies' Home Journal, and Ebony have named her Woman
of the Year. She is renowned poet, author, and activist Nikki
Giovanni, this year's keynote speaker for MHC's celebration of
Black History Month.
Giovanni, University Distinguished Professor of English at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University, will deliver the address
Thursday, February 14, at 7:30 pm, in the art building's Gamble
Auditorium. The author of more than fourteen volumes of poetry,
her honors include the NAACP Image Award for Literature (1998),
the Langston Hughes Award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts
and Letters (1996), and numerous honorary degrees. "The essence
of blackness" is the theme of Black History Month this year.
About Nikki Giovanni
Born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni Jr., in Knoxville, Tennessee,
in 1943, Giovanni was raised in Ohio. In 1960, she entered Nashville's
Fisk University, where she worked with the school's Writer's Workshop,
edited the literary magazine, and helped reinstate Fisk's chapter
of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Connections
between
literature and politics would be a focus of work for decades to
come.
By the time Giovanni received her bachelor's degree (in history,
with honors) in 1967, she was "firmly committed to the Civil
Rights Movement and the concept of black power," according
to the Encyclopedia Britannica Guide to Black History.
That year, she became actively involved in the Black Arts movement,
a loose coalition of African American intellectuals who wrote
politically and artistically radical poems aimed at raising awareness
of black rights and promoting the struggle for racial equality.
After receiving her undergraduate degree, Giovanni organized the
Black Arts Festival in Cincinnati and then entered graduate school
at the University of Pennsylvania. Her first three collections
of poems, Black Feeling (1967), Black Talk (1968),
and Black Judgement (1968) "secured [Giovanni's] reputation
as one of the most accessible of the young writers whose poems
encouraged black solidarity and revolution, and Giovanni soon
became the most prominent woman writer of the Black Arts movement,"
wrote Lisa Clayton Robinson. She also became well known for her
poetry readings, and Truth Is on Its Way, one of her recordings
of her poetry set to music, became a bestseller in 1971. That
year, she published Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement
on My First Twenty-Five Years at Being a Black Poet, a collection
of autobiographical essays.
Beginning in the early 1970s, Giovanni's experiences as a single
mother also influenced her poetry, and themes surrounding loneliness,
unfulfilled hopes, and family issues infused her work, which became
less political and more personal. Spin a Soft Black Song
(1971), Ego-Tripping (1973), and Vacation Time (1980)
are collections of poems that she wrote for children. In collections
she wrote for adults during these years, such as My House
(1972), The Women and the Men (1972), and Cotton Candy
on a Rainy Day (1978), the poet focused on relationships between
black men and black women, family connections, and issues of identity
and purpose. Giovanni returned to political concerns in Those
Who Ride the Night Winds (1983), with dedications to black
American heroes and heroines. Her tributes also extended as well
to nonblacks, notably John Lennon, Billie Jean King, and Robert
Kennedy. In the 1980s and 1990s, Giovanni published two additional
books of essays, which revolve around personal and social issues.
Her most recent works include Blues For All the Changes: New
Poems (William Morrow & Company, 1999), Love Poems
(1997), and The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni (1996).
For other Black History Month events, see CSJ Happenings. Highlights
include a February 11 screening of Ethnic Notions, Marlon Riggs's
documentary film about racist stereotypes in American history,
and a discussion of the film with religion professor John T. Grayson;
a variety show set for February 15; a panel discussion that addresses
the purpose of cultural houses on campus that will be held February
19; and a discussion of black women and health set for February
25. Black History Month is cosponsored by the Association of Pan
African Unity, the offices of the president, dean of the College,
dean of students, and student programs.
The
counter
is
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Ego Tripping
(there may be a reason why)
I was born in the congo
I walked to the fertile crescent and built
the sphinx
I designed a pyramid so tough that a star
that only glows
every one hundred years falls
into the center
giving divine perfect light
I am bad
I sat on the throne
drinking
nectar with allah
I got hot and sent an ice age to europe
to cool
my thirst
My oldest daughter is nefertiti
the tears from
my birth pains
created
the nile
I am a beautiful woman
I gazed on the forest and burned
out the
sahara desert
with a packet
of goat’s meat
and a change of clothes
I crossed it in two hours
I am a gazelle so swift
so
swift you can’t catch me
For
a birthday present when he was three
I gave my son hannibal an elephant
He
gave me rome for mother’s day
My strength flows ever on
My son noah built new/ark and
I stood proudly at the helm
as
we sailed on a soft summer day
I turned myself into myself and was
jesus
men
intone my loving name
All
praises All praises
I am the one who would save
I sowed diamonds in my backyard
My bowels deliver uranium
the
filings from my fingernails are
semi-precious
jewels
On
a trip north
I caught a cold and blew
My nose giving oil to the arab world
I am so hip even my errors are correct
I sailed west to reach east and had to round off
the
earth as I went
The
hair from my head thinned and gold was laid
across
three continents
I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended
except
by my permission
I mean … I … can fly
like
a bird in the sky…
—Nikki Giovanni
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