Born in 1943, Nikki Giovanni is the author of numerous collections of poetry and was the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award. Giovanni is commonly praised as one of the best African-American poets emerging from the 1960s Black Power and Black Arts Movements. Her early poems that were collected in the late 1960s and early 1970s are seen as radical as and more militant than her later work.
The older I get, the more I realize that memory plays tricks on us as we get older. I can’t tell you how many arguments there have been over Thanksgiving dinner when one sibling shares a memory and others chime in with “that is not what happened!”. Or even, “THAT NEVER HAPPENED!” I feel like this may be relevant to this post. My first memory of reading Nikki Giovanni was of reading a poem about explicit gay sex. I cannot find any on the Internet that I find particularly shocking. So I was clearly very young and naive, or I’m remembering it wrong. I remember being less than impressed. So I really haven’t read her in decades.
That said Nikki Giovanni is more than worthy of a Black History spotlight. There is no accounting for my taste. 🙂 Ms. Giovanni will be 78 years old in June. Yet, this month she is still touring colleges speaking to young people about the social injustice that remains in this country. She inspires them to participate in Black Lives Matter and continue to make their voices heard. In truth, she was one of the leading voices of Black Lives Matter before that was even a thing. She has been fiercely political since the 1960s both in her poetry and in her activism. She’s a model for all those who have come after her.
In addition, she’s also a huge advocate for the LGBTQ community. She was open about her sexuality from a young age and wrote many poems about the various love interests in her lives at a time where most everyone was in the closet.
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After 78 years in this country, she has never been discouraged. Never been silenced and continues to lead and teach the generations that came after here. Rather than the racy poem I was looking for, I have chosen to use the one she wrote for Black history month.
BLK History Month
BY NIKKI GIOVANNI
If Black History Month is not
viable then wind does not
carry the seeds and drop them
on fertile ground
rain does not
dampen the land
and encourage the seeds
to root
sun does not
warm the earth
and kiss the seedlings
and tell them plain:
You’re As Good As Anybody Else
You’ve Got A Place Here, Too
Copyright © 2002 by Nikki Giovanni.
Thank you, Ms. Giovanni, for being the wind, the rain and the sun for all those seeds.
Yesssss. I adore Nikki Giovanni’s work. A true living icon
Thanks for another great memory. Although for some reason I don’t have any of Nikki Giovanni’s works in my book collection, a very fond memory (again from my 20’s) was spending an evening listening to some of her recorded poetry with a guy I was dating. Going to search out books or records (I’m big into vinyl now). Thanks for doing this, TT.
Thank you
I need to check her out. I’ve never heard of her.
This surprised me and made me happy I included her! I’m trying to do a mixture of the well known and the up and coming and I didn’t expect people not to know who she was. So YAY this is what Black History Month is all about and why is it important! Your comment made my day!
Hello TT. This is my first time posting on your site. I am a Nikki Giovanni fan and always have been! Thanks for including her.
I am also a fan of your site. Been visiting for years. I enjoy your point of view and your commentaries.
Please take care and stay safe. Godspeed.
Looking forward to more comments from you, RaVonda!
Thanks for introducing me to Nikki Giovanni.
As a reading teacher… you make my day. I am pretty much shocked that people are not aware of her. There is so much great literature to read in black lit. It’s amazing.