The Poetry of Giovanni by Nikki Giovanni

First published:Black Feeling, Black Talk, 1968; Black Judgement, 1968; Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgement, 1970; Re: Creation, 1970; Poem of Angela Yvonne Davis, 1970; Spin a Soft Black Song: Poems for Children, 1971; My House, 1972; Ego-Tripping, and Other Poems for Young People, 1973; The Women and the Men, 1975; Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day, 1978; Vacation Time: Poems for Children, 1980; Those Who Ride the Night Winds, 1983; The Selected Poems of Nikki Giovanni,1996; Love Poems, 1997; Blues: For All the Changes, 1999; Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems, 2002; The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni, 1968-1998,2003; Acolytes,2007

Type of work: Poetry

Early Work

Born Yolande Cornelia Giovanni on June 7, 1943, in Knoxville, Tennessee, Nikki Giovanni grew up in the suburbs of Cincinnati. At the age of sixteen, she entered Fisk University; she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in history in 1967. Her political involvement at the university in the early 1960’s, combined with her increasing interest in writing, led to her obtaining a Ford Foundation grant in 1967 that aided her in the publication of her first book of poetry, Black Feeling, Black Talk (1968). Publication of Black Judgement followed in the same year. The unifying themes of the work are the black struggle and the role she sees for herself as both a participant in and a witness to the historic events of the Civil Rights movement.

Giving a glimpse into the childhood of the poet is the poem “Nikki-Rosa,” which highlights a happy childhood: “everybody is together and you/ and your sister have happy birthdays and very good/ Christmases.” In addition to writing about her sister, Gary, in many of her works, Giovanni describes her close relationship with her mother, Yolande; her father, Gus; and her maternal grandparents, John and Louvenia Brown. Later, with the birth of her son Tommy in 1969, Giovanni began writing collections of children’s poetry, including Spin a Soft Black Song: Poems for Children (1971), Ego-Tripping, and Other Poems for Young People (1973), and Vacation Time: Poems for Children (1980). She sought to transmit her values of black aestheticism to children through her poetry, as in the following:

i wish i werea shadowoh wow! when they putthe light onme i’d growlonger and taller andBLACKER

Inner and Outer Selves

The social and political changes that Giovanni has witnessed have affected the tone of her works. Chronicling the changes are her autobiography, Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-Five Years of Being a Black Poet (1971), and her collection of essays Sacred Cows . . . and Other Edibles (1988). Pulling the tenets of her life together, Giovanni faces, as do her readers, contradictions in her poetry. Many of these seeming contradictions are the result of the changes that have taken place in what she calls the “rooms outside” (society) and the “rooms inside” (the individual)—major themes in her poetry. In an interview with Claudia Tate, the poet addresses these contradictions:

If I never contradict myself then I’m either not thinking or I’m conciliating positions and, therefore, not growing. There has to be a contradiction. There would be no point to having me go three-fourths of the way around the world if I couldn’t create an inconsistency, if I hadn’t learned anything. If I ever get to the moon, it would be absolutely pointless to have gone to the moon and come back with the same position.

Beginning with My House (1972), Giovanni attempts to put the truth into perspective for herself and many other black women, identifying the “inner self” and the “outer self.” These personas are, in part, the result of the tumultuous 1960’s; the poet must reconcile her role in speaking for the many and her responsibility to verbalize her own unique, individual experiences. Introduced as the “Princess of Black Poetry” in the volume’s foreword by Ida Lewis, a close friend, Giovanni describes in My House the drama that is taking place in her mind. Divided into two sections, “The Rooms Inside” and “The Rooms Outside,” the collection mirrors the conflict between the individual’s desire to assert herself in her uniqueness and the altruistic desire to help others. For example, in the poem “The Only Song I’m Singing,” from “The Rooms Inside,” she focuses on this conflict: “in fact the truth is true/ the only song i’m singing now is my song/ of you.” The persona then asks: “baby please/ please somehow show me what i need/ to know so i can love you right/ now.” Inherent in the poem is its pleading tone, as the individual struggles to define herself in relationship to others.

In the world outside, however, “Nothing Makes Sense,” as Giovanni notes in the title of a poem in “The Rooms Outside.” An image of destruction amplifies the conflict: “the blinding light . . . quickly swept up to my house melting my flesh.” Therefore, the theme of self-sacrifice is in direct conflict with the theme of self-actualization. Moreover, the house of the book’s title becomes a symbol for Giovanni’s art; the house is a place both to create in and to retreat into domesticity. In “My House,” the concluding poem, she states:

i’m saying it’s my houseand i’ll make fudge and callit love and touch my lipsto the chocolate warmthand smile at old men and callit revolution. . . .

In an interview, Giovanni has stated that “literature is only as useful as it reflects reality.” Therefore, the African American woman of the early 1970’s is portrayed as trying to put her house in order to keep outside atrocities from tearing down her house (“in a day where the c.i.a. could hire Black hands to pull/ the trigger on malcolm”). That house is built on both the reality of “baby/ clothes to be washed . . . loneliness to be borne” and dreams of revolution, which is “screeeeeeeeeeeching to a halt.” As the model for this both personal and public struggle, Giovanni uses her strength through language to describe “that a change had come.”

A Quiet Revolution

In The Women and the Men (1975), the theme of revolution is redefined to mean “that if i dreamed/ natural dreams of being a natural/ woman doing what a woman/ does when she’s natural/ i would have a revolution.” Soul singer Aretha Franklin is the subject of “Poem for Aretha,” in which the poet examines the need to deal with Franklin as “a mother with four children,” not as a talented singer to use and to exploit, “to relive billie holiday’s life.”

The emerging natural woman, who derives pleasure from her children and her man, whom she seems unable to hold on to, also sits by the typewriter, but instead of writing, questions its value: “and i think/ not of someone/ cause there isn’t anyone/ to think/ about and i wonder/ is it worth it.” In the poetry included in the collection’s second section, “The Men,” the poems wrap around the theme of love—a satisfying, rich love: “i’m gonna grab your love/ and you’ll be satisfied.” Ultimately, the natural woman finds satisfaction in her devotion to her man’s love, and Giovanni’s poetry is a reference for the black woman in which her role is described and reaffirmed: “the heat/ you left with me/ last night/ still smolders.” She adds, “i am a leaf/ falling from your tree/ upon which i was/ impaled.” Although the love is satisfying, it may also be destructive for the artist, the individual.

Ironically, the third section of the collection, “And Some Places,” although not part of the main title of the book, is the section that unifies the private, personalized poetic journey with the more public, political one. For example, the poems “Africa,” “Night,” and “Poetry” provide a link between the two aspects of truth—the inner and outer self—for the African American poet, as exemplified in the following:

[poetry] never says “love me” for poets arebeyond loveit never says “accept me” for poems seek notacceptance but controversyit only says “i am”. . . .

The individualistic spirit of Giovanni’s voice reasserts itself in this concluding section, but it is much softer and less strident than in earlier works.

In Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day (1978), the poet’s tone is compromising; the spirit is dampened. She confronts the themes of loneliness and disillusionment. In her poem “The Rose Bush,” her sense of isolation is reflected: “Now I don’t fit beneath the rose bushes anymore.” The theme of homelessness permeates the poetry and dramatizes the poet’s conflict: She can no longer keep her private, inner world of art separate from the more public, outer world and its demands. In an attempt to define her position, she appears lost in thought on a rainy day. The theme is introspection—not retreat, but the reexamination of one’s goals defines the collection.

Giovanni’s Evolving Rhythms and Style

In general, Giovanni’s poetry is rhythmic and replete with arbitrary yet universal imagery. In her earlier works, however, a simple, repetitive rhythm is striking and resonant, as in the poem “The True Import of Present Dialogue: Black vs. Negro,” in which she asks “Nigger/ Can you kill” over and over again. The harmonious blending of the lines stands in stark contrast to the tone of rage. The poet uses this unique combination to emphasize the harshness of the theme. In addition, she frequently uses alliteration, as in “Poem (No name No. 2)”: “Bitter Black Get/ Blacker Get Bitter/ Get Black Bitterness/ NOW.”

Giovanni’s poetry in later volumes focuses on the use of more personal imagery associated with family, domesticity, and everyday life. Although the poems are rhythmic, they rely more on descriptions that create common, natural visual images, as in the poem “The Butterfly,” which describes hands as “butterflies fluttering/ across the pleasure/ they give/ my body.” In “The December of My Springs,” the rhythmic pattern reinforces the universal theme of aging: “that pitter-patter rhythm of rain/ sliding on city streets is as satisfying/ to me as this quiet has become.” Ultimately, the past language she has used to describe black experience does not offer her the dimension she needs to formalize the poet she has become. Therefore, in a subsequent collection, Those Who Ride the Night Winds (1983), the language and form are very different.

In the preface to the 1983 collection, Giovanni asserts that “language has opened . . . becoming more accessible . . . more responsive . . . to what people really think.” The poetic style is nontraditional. The lines are fractured by ellipses, and the form resembles a prose passage rather than a stanza of poetry. In an attempt to reunite private and public self as one universal model for African American women, she has dismissed a poetic form that had placed too many restrictions on her as both a witness and participant in this transformation. In “I Am She,” domestic chores are sacrificed for a dream, for a creative journey. As a poet, Giovanni seems comfortable with her role, which sometimes can be lonely. The “ride” is worth the price: “When I write I want to write,” she explains, “to day trippers . . . urging them to turn/back . . . toward the darkness . . . to ride the night winds . . . to tomorrow.” Describing herself as charting the “night winds,” she imagines a journey that forces people “to look . . . a little . . . deeper.” The tone is encouraging, instructive, and hopeful.

Those Who Ride the Night Winds not only marks a significant change in Giovanni’s poetic style but also provides the foundation for her collection of autobiographical essays and articles, Sacred Cows . . . and Other Edibles. The often humorous, cynical, yet challenging poet takes on lofty American institutions such as Miss America pageants, sports, and consumerism. In an essay that echoes the theme of My House, she describes the “house” as being in “serious disorder,” indicating that “we are still separate and unequal.” Unlike in the earlier collection, however, the point of view is one of a unified voice, as exemplified in the “we,” that can make a difference. The concluding essay reaffirms this unity and captures the universal theme for all, focusing on “home,” not “house,” focusing on similarities, not differences, between black people and white people. “Whether it was a European booking passage on a boat, a slave chained to a ship, a wagon covered with sailcloth, they all headed toward the unknown with all nonessentials stripped away.” She concludes that “we” are all pioneers, with “a deep desire to survive and an equally strong will to live.”

The variety of Giovanni’s later output can be understood based on her output in a single year, 1996. Her 1996 publications range from The Genie in the Jar—whose children’s poems are derived from such diverse sources as nursery rhymes, jazz, and folk tales—to Love Poems, which runs the gamut from the erotic to the gently romantic, to The Sun Is So Quiet, in which Giovanni describes wonderful childhood moments. Published three years later, Blues: For All the Changes (1999) offers fifty-two new and extremely personal poems, including her tribute to African American baseball great Jackie Robinson, “Stealing Home,” and the passionate and defiant “Road Rage Blues.”

The new century saw the emergence of Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems (2002),along with The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni, 1968-1998 (2003) and Acolytes (2007). Acolytes features eighty new poems that demonstrate Giovanni’s ability to retain her critical and poetic edge, as in her piece on civil rights icon Rosa Parks and the disappearance of civil rights worker Emmett Till. The collection is leavened, however, by intimate and personal memories of friends, family, and even favorite meals.

A lung cancer survivor who stands up for smoker’s rights, Giovanni has taught poetry and literature at Virginia Tech since 1987 and earned the rank of University Distinguished Professor. She has worked on writing projects with groups beyond the campus, resulting in such books as Appalachian Elders: A Warm Hearth Sampler (1991), by residents of the Warm Hearth Village retirement center in Blacksburg, Virginia; Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem Renaissance (1996), collecting poetry that illustrates the African American experience; and Paint Me Like I Am: Teen Poems from Writerscorps (2003), which brings together the diverse voices of city teens participating in writing programs.

Giovanni achieved a measure of fame for her inspiring Virginia Tech convocation speech on April 17, 2007, which helped inspire and unite the campus in the wake of the previous day’s killings of thirty-two students and teachers by student-gunman Cho Seung-Hui. Giovanni had encountered him before, in 2005, when she had had him removed from one of her creative writing classes because of his disruptive influence. Her short speech was delivered in a kind of poetic cadence that brought a positive response from those who listened to it and read it, at a time when something positive was badly needed. It was transcribed verbatim by a number of different news outlets.

Giovanni has survived inner and outer conflict and emerged with a strong, mature poetic voice. She is willing to ride the night winds to describe her unique yet universal experiences as an African American woman.

Bibliography

Fowler, Virginia C. Nikki Giovanni. New York: Twayne, 1992. A colleague of Giovanni’s at Virginia Polytechnic Institute State University, the author details the evolution of the poet, using her poetry to identify the influences of historical events, personal changes, and maturity on her work. Concluding with an interview of the poet, the work dramatizes the depth of Giovanni’s poetry and its literary power. Includes a comprehensive bibliography.

Giovanni, Nikki. Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical Statement on My First Twenty-Five Years of Being a Black Poet. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971. A somewhat self-centered collection of essays linked together by one common theme: the major influences on Giovanni’s life and work as she perceives them.

Giovanni, Nikki. Interview. In Black Women Writers at Work, edited by Claudia Tate. New York: Continuum, 1983. Tate’s interview of Giovanni reveals the poet’s literary philosophy, her unrelenting openness, and her spiritual connections with other black writers.

Giovanni, Nikki, and Margaret Walker. A Poetic Equation: Conversations Between Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1974. A dynamic dialogue between two major African American women writers. Reveals an aggressive yet poised Giovanni, who describes her vision of Black Power.

Juhasz, Suzanne. Naked and Fiery Forms: Modern American Poetry by Women, A New Tradition. New York: Harper & Row, 1976. Notes the political and social themes of Giovanni’s poetry and details the intensely individualistic nature of her work in defining both her public and private roles.

Lazenby, Roland, ed. April 16th: Virginia Tech Remembers. New York: Plume, 2007. Virginia Tech journalism students chronicle the shooting rampage in 2007 that left thirty-two people dead. Giovanni is cited as having brought the campus together in the wake of the tragedy with a speech she wrote and presented one day after it happened.