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Nikki Giovanni |
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“Well, OK, it seems to always fall on me to tell the truth and, hey, I don’t mind. It’s not nearly as bad a job as some people think…” (Giovanni, Sacred Cows and Other Edibles). Nikki Yolande Giovanni is one of America’s most recent poets who gained fame as a writer during the 1060s. Nikki Giovanni, better known as the “poet of the people” wrote in hopes of influencing the Civil Rights Movement and the women’s movement. Later on in her writing career, her areas of writing spread to politics and children’s books, allowing a greater audience to relate to what she had to say. Her African-American heritage has greatly influenced her writing, leading her to be one of the most widely read poets of today. She was not an author who wrote to entertain, but rather an author who wanted her voice to be heard.
Before Nikki’s birth, Nikki’s family had to flee their home in Albany, Georgia to Knoxville, Tennessee in order to flee persecution by whites because of something her grandmother had said. She went to school in a segregated school for girls. Nikki played small roles in the Civil Rights Movement by doing small things as marching with other blacks to protest a recent hate crime. In Knoxville, she read signs and
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Below are additional random excerpts from the paper...
Sacred Cows and Other Edibles is one book that truly brings out Nikki’s personality because she talks to her audience as if they were her friends. Yet, at the same time, she brings out the common theme of black pride and individualism:
Nelson Mandela’s work against apartheid was something that Nikki was against. However, since his movement for freedom there was such a big issue around the world, she received many threats. Nonetheless, Nikki was satisfied that she was able to make her voice heard upon the issue, as she had done many times on various subjects.
Nikki’s first award was controversial amongst the black community. The Ladies’ Home Journal magazine gave her an award at age thirty, “some black leaders said Giovanni should not have accepted an award from a mainly white organization. Giovanni disagreed.” (Pinkerton, pg. 63) Nikki Giovanni argued that people were being hypocrites by saying that. To her it was a sign of progress that at least some white people were recognizing a black lady for her works.
noticed other carious examples of segregation in her community. After her teacher, Miss Delaney, showed her the path towards a writing career, Nikki decided that she would write in order to help the Civil Rights Movement.
“Like most poets, I carry a two-hole folder with me almost compulsively. It’s not that I carry my ideas around so that should the occasion arise I can pull it out and say, in regard to some impending problem, ‘Oh well, a stitch in time saves nine.’…It’s just that like most writers I think I think best when I’m not actually thinking about it, so I carry a book that allowed me to put either something I have thought up as being very clever or, most likely, something that someone else said that I would one day like to use. ” (Giovanni, Let’s Sweat from Sacred Cows and Other Edibles pg. 99)
Nikki’s black pride has always been a key point in her writing career. Throughout all of her works, she tried to promote black pride to all of her readers. Her black heritage was the bottom line to her life and thus she wrote to reflect her experiences as a black woman during the 1960s. She paid tribute to all her family members for giving her the sense of black pride. An author once said, “She has written about most of her family members. She even dedicated a book-Spin a Soft Black Song-to her dog.”(Pinkerton, pg. 102)
Some topics in this essay:
Rights Movement,
Cows Edibles,
War Nikki,
Changes Poems,
Black Song-to,
Black Song,
African Americans,
Nikki Giovanni,
King Jr,
James Baldwin,
black pride,
rights movement,
civil rights movement,
civil rights,
sacred cows edibles,
cows edibles,
sacred cows,
nikki decided,
writing career,
pinkerton pg,
“poet people”,
cows edibles pg,
james baldwin,
sense black pride,
widely read poets,
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Approximate Word count = 1670
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)  |
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RELATED ESSAYS |
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Ego Tripping .... In her poem "Ego Tripping " Nikki Giovanni is referring to herself as a supernatural being by referring to explaining her affiliation with Jesus, Allah, and .... |
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Woman The poem "Woman " was written by Nikki Giovanni in 1978. .... What made it worse for Nikki Giovanni was that not only was she a woman but a black woman. .... |
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Creation .... In Nikki Giovanni 's poem, Ego Tripping: there may be a reason why, she expresses creation as a form of perfection, religion, and life. .... |
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"The Road Not Taken " and "Choices " .... The decisions Robert Frost and Nikki Giovanni had to make would effect their every day lives. .... Nikki Giovanni had to decide between self vs. .... |
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Fullfilling your needs and desirers Fulfilling your needs and desires in Nikki Giovanni 's "Master Charge Blues " In Nikki Giovanni 's poem "Master Charge Blues " we are told a story of .... |
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PROFESSIONAL ESSAYS |
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Poetry www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/bogan4.html, 2003, 1. Giovanni, N. Woman. Available: http://members.tripod.com/%7ERaincloud771/poetry/nikki/woman.htm |
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What is Music? 55). According to Nikki Giovanni, rap provides a realistic portrayal of the violence that already exists (Kinnon 77). The music |
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Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar 1971. Giovanni, Nikki. "Afterword." In A Singer in the Dawn: Reinterpretations of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jay Martin (ed.), 243-246. |
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