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Nikki Giovanni (June 7, 1943 / Knoxville, Tennessee)
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an American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Her primary focus is on the individual and the power one has to make a difference in oneself and in the lives of others. Giovanni’s poetry expresses strong racial pride, respect for family, and her own experiences as a daughter, a civil rights activist, and a mother. She is currently a distinguished professor of English at Virginia ... more »
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Quotations
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''There're two people in the world that are not likeable: a master and a slave.''
Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943), U.S. poet. conversation in London, Nov. 4, 1971, with James Baldwin. A Dialogue (1973).
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''If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.''
Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943), U.S. poet. A Dialogue (1973). from a conversation, Nov. 4, 1971, with James Baldwin in London.
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''White people really deal more with God and black people with Jesus.''
Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943), U.S. poet. A Dialogue (1973). from a conversation with James Baldwin, London (Nov. 4, 1971).
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''There're two people in the world that are not likeable: a master and a slave.''
Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943), U.S. poet, and James Baldwin (1924-1987), U.S. author. A Dialogue (1973). from a conversation in London, Nov. 4, 1971.
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Has anyone ever read Poetry by Nikki Giovanni? If not, here it is:
Poetry is motion graceful
as a fawn
gentle as a teardrop
strong like the eye
finding peace in a crowded room
we poets tend to think
our words are golden
though emotion speaks too
loudly to be defined
by silence
sometimes after midnight or just before
the dawn
we sit typewriter in hand
pulling loneliness around us
forgetting our lovers or children
who are sleeping
ignoring the weary wariness
of our own logic
to compose a poem
no one understands it
it never says love me for poets are
beyond love
it never says accept me for poems seek not
acceptance but controversy
it only says i am and therefore
i concede that you are too
a poem is pure energy
horizontally contained
between the mind
of the poet and the ear of the reader
if it does not sing discard the ear
for poetry is song
if it does not delight discard
the heart for poetry is joy
if it does not inform then close
off the brain for it is dead
if it cannot heed the insistent message
that life is precious
which is all we poets
wrapped in our loneliness
are trying to say
What a wonderful, uplifting speech she gave at the convocation memorial service at Va Taech the day after the shootings there.
She raised the spirits of both the students and the staff along with those of the world.
She gave hope to the hopeless of the world and raised every single person involved with Va Tech to the highest of all highs.
Va Tech is indeed lucky to have her as one of their professors.
I hope and pray that they all recover from this horrible tragedy and with staff like her, the students will prevail!
Go Hokies! Go Hokies!
Wow. Congratulations A. MacDonald you are now the poster boy/girl for the 'it is not my fault club'. He was 23, he had a brain, he was an adult. Everyone did what they could for him. Many people have horrendous childhoods, have many bad things that happen (and that they imagine happen) to them - some of them commit suicide - very few of them take people with them. How about we just balme it on him and quit dragging well meaning folks who did all they could through the mud?
As to the person who stated that all professionals had not helped this gentlemen. It is now the job of teachers to also stop the hate in people? It is he, himself, who failed the world. He is responsible for decisions and in the eyes of most of us, is a coward.