Nikki Giovanni

(June 7, 1943 / Knoxville, Tennessee)

poet Nikki Giovanni
#45 on top 500 poets

Nikki Giovanni Quotes

  • ''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.
    703 person liked.
    		146 person did not like.
  • ''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.
    432 person liked.
    		174 person did not like.
  • ''A white face goes with a white mind. Occasionally a black face goes with a white mind. Very seldom a white face will have a black mind.''
    Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943), U.S. poet. from a conversation with James Baldwin, in London, Nov. 4, 1971. A Dialogue (1973).
    247 person liked.
    		89 person did not like.
  • ''I think one of the nicest things that we created as a generation was just the fact that we could say, Hey, I don't like white people.''
    Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943), U.S. poet. from a conversation with James Baldwin in London, Nov. 4, 1971. A Dialogue (1973).
    187 person liked.
    		122 person did not like.
  • ''A lot of people refuse to do things because they don't want to go naked, don't want to go without guarantee. But that's what's got to happen. You go naked until you die.''
    Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943), U.S. poet. Black Women Writers at Work, ch. 5, by Claudia Tate (1983).
    185 person liked.
    		52 person did not like.
  • ''Writers don't write from experience, although many are hesitant to admit that they don't. ...If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.''
    Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943), U.S. poet. Black Women Writers at Work, ch. 5, by Claudia Tate (1983).
    51 person liked.
    		14 person did not like.

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Best Poem of Nikki Giovanni

Knoxville Tennessee

I always like summer
Best
you can eat fresh corn
From daddy's garden
And okra
And greens
And cabbage
And lots of
Barbeque
And buttermilk
And homemade ice-cream
At the church picnic
And listen to
Gospel music
Outside
At the church
Homecoming
And go to the mountains with
Your grandmother
And go barefooted
And be warm
All the time
Not only when you go to bed
And sleep

Read the full of Knoxville Tennessee

Nikki-Rosa

Childhood rememberances are
always a drag if you're Black
you always remember things like
living in Woodlawn with no inside toilet
and if you become famous or something
They never talk about how happy
you were to have your mother
all to yourself and how good the
water felt when you got your bath

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