Nikki Giovanni - 1943
|
Tennessee
Read another essay on Nikki Giovanni by Virginia student
Susan Lawson.
I. Biography
In Nikki Giovanni's variety of writing, she is a true representative of a contemporary Tennessee writer with melancholic eyes to the past and tradition and with a sharp probing of the future. Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee but raised in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. She attended the all-black Fisk University, where she became involved in both the Writers' Workshop and the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Giovanni graduated with honors from Fisk University, Pennsylvania University, and Columbia University. A teacher and lecturer as well as a writer, she founded her own publishing company at the age of 27.
Giovanni's poems reflect her childhood in Tennessee and her experiences as an African American. In 1967, she was 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 radical equality. Radicalized by the assassination of Malcolm X and by the rise of the militant Black Panthers, her poetry in the 1960s and 1970 was colorful. Being in a recurrent theme of this era was a possible redundancy of poetry in the face of possible revolution.
II. Literary Works
A poet, writer, and lecturer, Giovanni went to Queens College of the City University of New York. She was an assistant professor of Black studies in 1968 at Rutgers University. At Livingston College and New Brunswick, NJ she was an associate professor of English. Also in 1968 until 1972 she was a founder of publishing firm, Niktom ltd, 1970. She has made television appearances on "Soul". She produced on National Educational Television, and on numerous talk shows.
In reading Nikki Giovanni's, Love Poems, I felt that she has been tricked or mistreated with men in her lifetime. But on the other hand, I believe she was also in love. Her poems inspire young people to watch who they are dating and what could happen while being with someone special. Giovanni talks about things that could lead up to sexual intercourse, also. However, men in her life may have cheated and lied to her. In addition, maybe she was deeply in love with a man that just did not treat her like a woman.
In one way or another, Giovanni is smart, straight to the point and has emotionally candid poems. But she turns somber and reflective as she expresses the love at a daughter and mother, and how a woman's deep down love for a man that far outlasts the giddy romp of romance. Donna Seaman from Booklist states, "Giovanni is one of America's most popular poets, because she speaks her mind clearly and has such a good time doing it."
One of Giovanni's books, The Genie in the Jar, is basically a celebration of creativity and community. The poem has an obliquely stated meaning that will be grist for classroom discussion. Susan Dove Lempke states, "Raschka's spare drawings on brown paper reflect the ebullience of the young girl as well as the comfort of a mother's arms younger children, who will enjoy hearing this read aloud, may understand the message better than their more literal-minded older siblings.
III. Interview
1). When did you first begin to write poetry?
I first started writing poetry when I was in my teenage years. I always loved the poems that described nature and outdoors when I was younger and I tried to write my own.
2). Do you have a favorite poem? If so which one is it and what is it about?
Yes, I have many favorite poems. Among them are "Where Go the Boats" by Robert Louis Stevenson. I always liked the line "boats Of mine go boating / where will all come home." I think I like that so much because I always liked islands and I would draw islands and still wish I could live on an island. For about ten years I could live on the most exciting island in the world, Manhattan, or may be it's the second most exciting, but I have not had the privilege of going to Hong Kong. I have always liked travel and even now would like to take the space shuttle for just a day or two to visit with our unknown friends in outer space.
3). I've read your poem "Journey." Do you think life is a journey? Why?
Life, I believe is not only a journey, it is an adventure. Every day there is something new and wonderful about life. I think I am very lucky because I didn't have to get old to make that discovery. I used to watch the clouds drift by when I visited my grandmother in Knoxville, Tennessee; I love the babble of water surging toward the gutter. I like streams but I have spent most of my life in cities so the running water I know is in pipes or down gutters. I still am fascinated by small things like why corn pops and how mother Robin knows when it's safe to leave. I like sunsets and I love to be up early in the morning to see the sun rise. And even on rainy days there are things to watch and wonder about. Humans have so much to learn that it was and still is a journey that we approach our world and our lives with wonder about what is around the bend.
4). Have you done much traveling around the world? If so, what countries did you go to? Do you think it's important for a writer to travel?
Well, I have traveled a lot but I have to confess that even with the traveling I have done, most of my traveling is done right here in my den or when I was younger in my bed with books. I think the very best travel guide is a book in which the author explains and explores some terrain.
5). How did you become an author? Did anyone help you get started?
Probably the easiest thing in the world is to become an author. All you have to do is say you are one. We do not have test or require licenses or anything like that. You just have to do it and then comes the hard part: you have to find someone to read it. You will note I did not say anything about publishing it. Publishing is the icing on the cake. First you must write it, and then someone must read it. I have always had difficulty with the second part of your question because people help people no matter what people think or do. I do not believe anyone does it on their own. We all receive help and those of us who are wise always stand ready to give it.
6) How would you say you've changed over the course of your writing career?
Fortunately, I don't have to look at my work and seek changes or trends or periods. My responsibility as an artist is to continue to create work that is meaningful to me of which I can be proud. The changes or lack thereof are for posterity.
IV. Works by Giovanni
Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968)
Black Judgement (1968)
Night Comes Softly (190)
Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis (1970) Illustrated by Charles Bible
Re: Creation (1970)
Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-Five Years of Being a Black Poet (1971)
Spin a Soft Black Song: Poems for Childen (1971). Illustrated by Charles Bible
In My House (1972)
Dialogue (1973) Foreword by Ida Lewis; Afterword by Orcle Coombs. Conversations with James Baldwin.
My House, Ego-Tripping and Other Poems for Young People (1973)
A Poetic Equation: Conversations between Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker (1974)
The Women Gather (1975)
The Women and the Men (1975)
Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (1978)
Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgment (1979)
Vacation Time: Poems or Children (1980)
Those Who Ride the Night Winds(1983)
Sacred Cows and Other Edibles (1988)
Knoxville, Tennessee (1994) Illustrated by Larry Johnson
Racism 101 (1994) Foreword by Virginia Fowler.
The Genie in the Jar (1996). Illustrated by Chris Raschka
Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem renaissance Through Poems (1996) An anthology of Harlem Renaissance (more or less) poets with Nikki Giovanni's comments.
The Selected Poems of Nikke Giovanne (1996)
The Sun is So Quiet; Poems (1996) Illustrated by Ashley Byan
Love Poems (1997)
V. Bibliography
Rowe Dyer Monica."Review of Nikke Giovanni's Love Poems " American Visions Feb-March 1998 v13 n1.
Lempke Dove Susan. "Review of Nikki Giovanni the Genie in the Jar". Booklist, April 1, 1996 v92 n15.
Giovanni, Nikki. Love Poems. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1997.
Giovanni, Nikki. Those Who Ride The Night Winds. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1983.
Giovanni, Nikki. Sacred Cows. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1988.
Giovanni, Nikki. Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1978.
Giovanni, Nikki. Black Judgement. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1968.
Giovanni, Nikki. Black Feeling, Black Talk. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1968.
Giovanni, Nikki. Sacred Cows and Other Edibles. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1988.
Giovanni, Nikki. Re: Creation. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1970.
VI. Works Cited
Rowe Dyer Monica. "Review of Nikki Giovanni's Love Poems" American Visions Feb-March 1998v13n1.
Lempke Dove Susan. "Review of Nikki Giovanni The Genie in the Jar" Booklist, April 1, 1996 v92 n15
Giovanni, Nikki. Love Poems New York: William Morrow and Company 1997
Giovanni, Nikki. Those Who Ride The Night Winds New York: William Morrow and Company 1983
Giovanni, Nikki. Sacred Cows New York: William Morrow and Company 1988
Giovanni, Nikki. Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day New York: William Morrow and Company 1978
This essay as submitted by a student of Judith Broadbent, a college professor in Tennessee.